A Slight Misunderstanding
by muishiki
Summary: Ranma/X-men. Ranma does not go to NY. He doesn't even leave Tokyo. Trouble always seems to find him, though, and that trouble usually has two X chromosomes. Add a perverted JiJi, and the stage is set for a slight misunderstanding. RanmaXRogue.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own any of these characters. Wish I did, though. Then I'd be rich.

* * *

"Buckle up, kid."

Rogue sank into the chair and started strapping herself in as Wolverine warmed up the X-jet. It was a relief to get out of the mansion for a bit and not have any thing to do but tag along. Going to Japan to see Wolverine's dismember some crime lord on the anniversary of his fiancée's death didn't exactly sound like a typical vacation, but the time off from the responsibility would be good for her.

"What was Mariko like, Wolverine?"

Logan shifted the cigar in his mouth from one side to the other. "A real hellion. Her dad was a Yakuza. He turned the Yashida clan into the criminal empire in Tokyo."

"How'd you meet?"

"We met after that fiasco in Savage Land. Charles asked us to go to Japan and help out when Moses was blackmailing the country. We became close, and then her dad pulled some stupid shit that eventually ended up with me having to kill him. We were going to get married, but then Mastermind got involved and took over her mind before we could jump the broom."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It started with her father forcing Mariko to marry some criminal boss fuck even though he knew we were an item. The bastard nearly beat her nearly to death. I found out about it and confronted her dad, but the fucker poisoned me. He challenged me to a duel with wooden swords in front of her. This guy was one of the best swordsman I've ever seen, and between the poison and his knowledge of anatomy, he nearly killed me."

"Even with your healing factor?" She asked.

"Even with my healing factor. He the toxin he used completely fucked up my healing factor, and he used it as an opportunity to inflict some serious pain by attacking my nerve endings. Her dad wanted to humiliate me in front of Mariko, and I ended up having to use my claws to save my own life. She thought I cheated, and I ended up being disgraced."

"So how'd you work it out?"

"I got revenge. I completely destroyed the Yashida criminal empire. Then I gutted him. Mariko was being controlled by the Mastermind, though. She ended up taking over for her father after we managed to break his control over her. We never got a chance to plan a marriage before she died, though."

"What did she look like?" asked Rogue.

"Cute – short, Japanese, with long black hair." Logan dug around in his jacket pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Photo's in there, behind the credit cards."

Rogue pulled it out and looked. "She was cute."

Logan grimaced. "Yeah."

"How did she die?"

"She was assassinated. Blowfish poison." He raised one hand and a claw extended out from between his second and third knuckle. "This year, I'm taking the foot off the bastard that did it."

Conversation died after that as Wolverine fired up the jet and the whine of the engines made talking difficult. Rogue became lost in her own thoughts, day dreaming about having a fiancé of her own, of being able to touch someone and not absorb their memories and abilities. She was so wrapped up in her daydream that takeoff failed to shake her out of her thoughts. Wolverine wasn't wasting any time and opened up the throttle full bore. Since she didn't feel like competing with the sound of the engines the whole way to Tokyo, Rogue put her head back and drifted off. Even with the advanced technology Forge incorporated into the jet, it was still a long flight from New York to Tokyo.

=-=-=-=

Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling, had been trained in the martial arts his whole life, sacrificing life and limb to be the best in the world. He feared nothing (except cats), and thanks to his training could survive and thrive in ordeals lesser beings would consider impossible. There was little doubt that he was an incredibly powerful martial artist; he'd taken on gods and demons and always won.

But he had a number of problems. First, he was best there was, which meant he was bored. Being the best meant that there were few challenges you couldn't overcome. The constant stream of super-powered challengers he had faced in high school had dried up once he had graduated and gone to college. Partly, it was because they realized they couldn't beat him, and partly because the crew had been dispersed around the country pursing their own education.

College was not nearly as exciting as he had hoped, and he feared that he was losing his edge. For an adrenaline junkie whose life had been nothing but an unending stream of chaos, battle, and competition, to suddenly be relatively stable and normal was hard. Without someone stronger, faster, and better than you threatening to hurt someone you loved, it became hard to maintain your edge. As a result, he had to work twice as hard to stay focused and to keep boredom away, but he'd not had any real breakthroughs in a long time.

The second problem was his gender curse. In an effort to make him the best martial artist of his generation, Ranma's father, Genma Saotome, had taken him on a ten-year training journey across Asia to learn esoteric techniques and skills. That journey instilled a life-long fear of cats due to a flawed but unbeatable martial arts technique he had been forced to learn, and had also taken him to the legendary Chinese martial arts training ground in the valley of Jusenkyo.

The Jusenkyo training ground was simple hundreds of small pools of water with bamboo poles sticking up out of the middle. As a martial arts test of skill, it required balance, strength, and dexterity to successfully fight atop the pools. However, the real power of the location was in the water below. Each pool was magically cursed to change whoever fell into it into the form of whatever beast or creature had drowned in the pool after its creation.

In Genma's case, Ranma had knocked him into the spring of the drowned panda, Shonmaoniichuan. Every time his dad was hit with cold water, he turned into a panda, reverting to his human form only with the application of hot water. Ranma had fallen into one of the cursed springs as well. Like his father, he switched forms with the application of hot and cold water. But unlike his father, he only switched gender, because he was knocked into the Nyaniichuan, or the spring of the drowned girl.

Switching gender had caused him no end of problems, of course. He'd hated it originally and had been focused on getting rid of the curse. After years of searching and numerous failed "cures," he'd finally realized the curse was permanent. He eventually learned to accept the curse over the years, and even was grateful for it on occasion. Ranma would be the first to admit he wasn't one of the most socially adept people in the world, and changing sex with the smallest splash of water certainly hadn't made it easier to make friends.

The people who weren't martial artists and hadn't gone through similar chaos in their lives tended to avoid him because they thought he was a "freak." Those who could understand his problem tended to be the source of the chaos that had ruled his life, and as a result, Ranma tried to avoid them when possible.

However, the biggest problem in his life was currently sitting across the table from him. It was his fiancée, Akane Tendo. Or, it would be more accurate to say that his fiancées were his biggest problem, and Akane was merely one of his fiancées. Engaged to multiple women by his father over the course of his life time, Ranma had come to view beautiful women as a source of never-ending frustration. In Akane's case, it was pain and frustration.

They had been engaged for almost six years and were no closer to getting married now than they had been at sixteen. Their fathers had forced them into an arranged marriage that was supposed to join the Tendo and Saotome schools of Indiscriminant Grappling. The problem was, Akane had initially been so jealous and wary of Ranma it had taken a long time for them to get to a point where a relationship had even been possible. She'd hated the fact that he was much better than her at martial arts. In addition, Ranma's father had engaged him to multiple other women as well, all of whom were better martial artists than Akane.

Akane was jealous, insecure in her own abilities, and traumatized by a horde of hormone addled boys for a year prior to Ranma's arrival at the Tendo dojo. It hadn't been the most fertile grounds for a relationship to blossom. Ranma's own social ineptitude hadn't helped either, and the teasing and name calling had only further exacerbated her insecurities. She'd responded by taking out her anger and frustration on Ranma by physically abusing him through repeated blunt trauma. By the time they actually got around to having a relationship that wasn't based on denial there was too much emotional baggage to work through.

They had graduated from high school and gone to the university in Tokyo, but not the same schools. Akane's entrance exam scores had been much, much better than Ranma's, so she had gotten into a more prestigious university. Ranma's lackluster results meant he was going to a lesser known university. It was surprising that he was even able to go, but Ranma was leapt at a chance to get out of the chaos that had been the Tendo Dojo. Their fathers had insisted that since they live together in an apartment and commute to school, rather than living in a dorm.

They had both agreed to the condition, but maintained the apartment had to be secret from everyone. They didn't tell Ranma's other fiancées where the apartment was, and managed to keep it a secret from their fathers as well. Removing the stress of living with their families actually helped them move forward in the relationship.

And they had moved forward. First it was just being able to be alone, and eventually exploring the physical aspects of their relationship. The sex had started out great, and they both believed that their strong physical desire for each other meant the relationship would work out. After the initial excitement about sex wore off, they discovered that making a relationship work required _work_. Attraction and lust could not stand up to the underlying problems in their relationship.

They both acknowledged that they loved each other. Time and maturity also made them realized that while the loved each other, their love was not one that could stand being married. They underlying problems began to manifest themselves after the newness of being physically intimate wore off. The shine of sex wore off pretty quickly once it became apparent Akane was more attracted to his female aspect than his male.

Ranma couldn't marry a lesbian.

In the end, Ranma had broken it off when it became apparent that continuing the relationship threatened to destroy their friendship. The initial hurt was great, but in time, Akane got over it and they became real friends. They'd both moved on and eventually Akane had made a "close friend" and moved out of the apartment, leaving him alone and unfettered for the first time in his life.

Even though they had stopped dating, they hadn't broken the engagement yet, or at least no publicly. The reason they were still engaged was mostly for his protection, however. If he made it known that they were no longer an item, some of his other suitors would show up and lay claim. Being engaged to Akane had been hard enough. He realized now he couldn't stomach the thought of being married to any of his other fiancées.

This is why he and Akane were currently sitting in an ice-cream parlor trying to decide on what they needed to do next.

Akane reached across the table and dug into his ice cream sundae with a spoon. "Well?" she asked, putting the bite of stolen ice cream in her mouth. "Are you going to do it, or not?"

"Look, Akane." Ranma said. "You know as well as I do that if I go to your dad and tell him we're never going to get married all hell will break lose. Do you want to deal with that again?"

"We're going to have to tell him sometime. We can't hide this forever."

Ranma shrugged. "I know. But I don't know what to do. There's no way I'm marrying Xian Pu or Ukyo, and you know I'd have to if I don't marry you."

"My girlfriend would be pissed if we got married." Akane said.

Ranma smirked. "I could take her."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Akane dug into his sundae again. "You want the rest of that?" He rolled his eyes and pushed it towards her so she wouldn't have to reach so far.

The pair fell silent as Akane polished off the rest of the ice cream. Akane glanced at her watch. "I've got to go to class. We've got to tell him before we both graduate, because I know he's planning a wedding for the summer."

"Why do I have to be the one to tell him? He's your dad."

"Do you think he's going to listen to me? Look, I'm going to have to tell him about the fact that I like girls. If I had to deliver the news about the engagement as well, I think it would break him."

"Would serve him right after all the shit they put us through."

"I'm not saying I disagree, but he is my father."

Ranma didn't say anything in reply, concentrating rather on tearing his paper napkin into small pieces and rolling them into balls. He flicked the balls into the empty ice cream bowl.

"Would you just think about it, Ranma?" She asked.

"I will, but it doesn't get me out of my problem with my other fiancées."

Akane shrugged. "We'll think of something. Anyway, I've got to run. Lots of love, okay?" She stood up and leaned across the table to give him a peck on the cheek.

Ranma just frowned and waved her off as she left the booth to get to class.

=-=-=-

With nothing better to do and no inclination to participate in Wolverine's bloody anniversary ritual, Rogue spent her time wandering in downtown Tokyo, window shopping. She had no particular destination in mind, content to flow with the crowd as she was dragged along from the crowded shopping streets to the narrower, less trafficked back allies that housed the more esoteric shops.

Turning down a street designed only for foot traffic, she paused in front of a lingerie shop. She debated for several seconds before finally deciding to go in. Even if she couldn't really touch anybody, that didn't mean somebody couldn't enjoy looking.

She stepped inside and started browsing. Even if she didn't understand Japanese, underwear was universal. She picked out several promising looking matched sets of bras and bottoms, doing some quick conversions in her head to make sure she had the right size. It actually took her a while to find things that matched her cup size, as she was better endowed than the average customer who came.

=-=-=-

Happosai, the Grandmaster of both schools of the Indiscriminate Grappling fighting style, hummed to himself contentedly as he sorted through his collection of women's underwear. Things had been peaceful since Ranma and Akane had left for college years ago. It should be stated that things were peaceful for Happosai, at least, but not for the rest of the district. Ranma had been a force for good and balance against the perverted Grandmaster. Having left for college, the lack super powered martial artist failed to keep Happosai's perversions in check.

Happosai had free reign in Nerima. Women were afraid. Very afraid.

A jolt, like a small electric shock, ran through him. Somewhere in Tokyo a beautiful woman was about to undress to purchase underwear. Her presence was unknown to him. This merited investigation.

His collection forgotten, he stood up and whipped out a handkerchief and wrapped it over his head, tying it in place under his nose to disguise his face. He flung the door to his room open and marched resolutely to the front door.

Kasumi saw the diminutive martial arts master walking by the kitchen on his way out. "Oh, are you going out, Grandfather?"

Happosai nodded. "Yes. There's something of great importance I must do."

"Do you know when you will be back?" Kasumi asked. "I would like to know if I should include you in the dinner preparations tonight."

Happosai shook his head. "What I have to do is too important. Plan to eat without me. I may not come back until late."

Kasumi smiled brightly. "Okay then, Grandfather. I hope everything turns out alright!"

Happosai turned towards the heavens. "So do I," he prayed. "So do I."

=-=-=-

Ranma was idly flipping through his textbook in the library, pretending he was studying. He was still turning the conversation with Akane over in his head, thinking about how he could break the news to his old man and her father without too much drama. Because he was so distracted, it took him a while to realize he was feeling a powerful aura approaching his general location at a high rate of speed.

Frowning, Ranma closed his textbook and shoved it in his backpack. That aura…

He heard the cry of "SWEEETOOO," followed by the distressed cries of young, female college students being groped by a perverted old man.

He banged his head on the table. Mentally cursing his rotten luck that Happosai was passing through his university, Ranma grabbed his books. He jumped out an open window and while falling, twisted enough to threw the backpack on top of the university library. He'd get it later, but for right now he needed to stop the old goat before anyone got seriously hurt. He landed lightly on his feet and honed in on the disturbance.

Following the receding cries of his father's martial arts master, Ranma waited until he was close enough to launch a jumping snap kick at the old man. Unfortunately, he was given the title of Grandmaster for a reason. The old man managed to dodge at the last second. Ranma at least was satisfied knowing that he came much closer to catching him than ever before.

"Ranma my boy! Fancy seeing you here!" Happosai's surprised act was a complete failure.

"Imagine that." Ranma took a ready stance as Happosai sat cross-legged on the ground and pulled out his pipe, looking relaxed and calm.

"I felt you coming. I thought I asked you not to come around here anymore."

Happosai scratched his chin. "That you did. But I like it here."

"Yeah, but you could get me kicked out."

"Bah," snorted Happosai. "Why do you need a college degree? You should just come and complete your training under me."

"Fat chance, you old goat."

"That's too bad." Happosai looked genuinely forlorn as he said this. In the next instant, he vanished from where he was sitting to appear in mid-air in front of Ranma.

"Here, hold this?"

Happosai shove a lit firecracker with a short fuse into his hands. Before it even registered what he held, it blew up, the smoke covering Happosai's escape.

Ranma wiped the soot of his face with his forearm and smiled grimly. He cracked his knuckles. At least he could count on Happosai to keep him from getting too bored.

With that, he leapt after the diminutive troll. The chase was on.

=-=-=-

"Come back here, you old fart!" Ranma sped after Happosai, hot on his tail. He was intent on causing as much pain as possible to the old man when caught him.

"You must be slacking off in your training, Ranma. You've got to be faster than that if you want to catch me!" With that, Happosai sped up, pulling away.

Ranma bit back an oath, turning up the speed a notch to close the distance. He launched a quick knife hand strike aimed at the back of the neck, but Happosai jumped over it and lashed out with a foot, catching the over-extended Ranma in the chin. Even though he was small in stature, he packed a wicked amount of power in his kick.

Ranma went crashing through a concrete wall but immediately bounced back up, intent on not losing the pervert. He caught sight of the old man jumping away on the rooftops, heading for the shopping district.

=-=-=-=-

Rogue held up a lacy white bra with black accents against her naked form and examined it in the mirror. Mostly transparent, it revealed tantalizing bits while hiding the important stuff. Oh yes, that one was quite nice. She looked at the price. While not cheap, it was certainly affordable and a good deal nicer than anything she currently owned. Due to the active nature of her "day job" and the size of her endowments, she tended to own a good collection of sports bras and other practical garments.

It was time for a little luxury. The white lace matched the color of the streak in her hair, and the black trim accentuated the creamy color of her skin. She could just imagine the look on Gambit's face if he ever saw her wearing that one. Rather than try it on, she hung it on a hook in the dressing room and decided instead to pick up a red number.

This was nice, too, but didn't flatter her figure as much. The color was too vamp, too vibrant for her skin tones. Shaking her head, she put it down and picked up a third set, a green satin number with cut outs. This one was nice, but the she wasn't crazy about the pattern.

"I think the first one looks best."

Rogue whipped her head around to the top of the training booth, where a small troll sat on the door jamb, sagely nodding his head as he watched her decide which set to try on.

She did the only thing she could think of, like a normal girl.

She screamed.

"SWEETO!!!"

Happosai jumped forward, intent on fondling his prize.

=-=-=-=-=-

"HAPPODAIKARIN!"

Ranma instantly focused on the blast that rose from only a couple blocks away. Damn it, looked like he'd be too late. He watched in confusion as a small form was rocketed away from the blast sight, on fire and heading towards the horizon on a trajectory for low-earth orbit.

He reached the scene of the blast a scant nanosecond later, only to find a very naked, and very beautiful Caucasian woman with dark hair with a single white streak in it standing in the midst of the charred remains of a lingerie shop, her chest heaving as she covered her self as best she could with her arms.

The sound of his landing brought her attention to him. Ranma was too distracted by the motion of her body to do anything but blink as she pulled out one of the biggest Happodaikarin's he'd ever seen from some where and threw it at him.

He knew pain.

=-=-=-=-

Happosai was just pulling himself out of the crater created by his landing when Ranma crashed landed on top of him.

It was some time later he was able to say, "That hurt."

Ranma sat up and cracked his neck back into alignment. It had been a while since he had been sent flying like that, and he wasn't as good at landing as he used to be. He reached down and pulled the flattened Happosai out from under him, throwing the troll up over the lip of the crater and leaping out himself.

"Well, at least your good for something, you old fart." Ranma began the process of dusting himself off as Happosai began collecting himself.

"Did you see that body? HOTCHA!" Happosai prepared to leap off in pursuit, but was stopped as Ranma reached out and grabbed the back of his gi, holding the old man off the ground.

"Not so fast." Ranma stood up and held Happosai at arms length. He knew the old man could get out of this easily. "Did you also notice she used the Happodaikarin?"

"Really?"

Ranma nodded. "Did you train someone how to use your technique and not tell me?"

"No." Happosai shook his head.

"Well, does anyone else know that move they could have taught her?"

"Hush, I'm thinking." Happosai folded his legs in the air, acting for all the world like he was sitting comfortably on the ground, rather than suspended from the back of his neck. He seemed to be thinking furiously. His eyes shot open. "Ah ha!" he exclaimed.

"What?"

"Those had to be at least D cups. At least!" Happosai cocked his head. "Probably DD."

Ranma quickly rapped the old man on top of the head. "Forget her boobs, you moron."

"But how can I?" Whined Happosai. "Did you see how magnificent they were?"

Ranma smiled a bit dreamily. "Yeah, I did." He shook his head, angry at himself for getting distracted. It wasn't like he'd never seen a great rack before. "How did she learn your technique?"

Happosai shrugged. "I've got no idea." He looked up at the arm holding him off the ground. "Put me down."

"Or what?"

Ranma found out quickly as he was suddenly slammed face-first into the ground, pinned down by Happosai's foot on the back of his neck. He spat out a chunk of concrete and attempted to leg sweep the old man off him, which only earned him a swift kick to the ribs. "Hush, Ranma m'boy. I'm trying to think."

Ranma sat up nursing his bruised ribs. "You're not upset she used your technique?"

Happosai scoffed. "That technique is hardly unique. But what's interesting is she's some sort of vampire."

Ranma sprung to his feet. "What do you mean?"

"Like Hinako. She absorbed my ki when I fondled her. Right afterwards, she used my technique." Happosai scratched his head. "Ranma my boy, we're going to get to her bottom. I mean the bottom of her."

"We are?"

"Yes. Do you remember that technique you used on Hinako to stop her from draining people?" asked the old man.

"You mean the one with the five pressure points where it looks like you're coping a cheap feel?" Ranma said.

"That's the one," confirmed Happosai. "I need you to do it to that girl."

"I don't want to."

"You must," commanded Happosai.

"Why? You should do it. You're the one who wants to feel her up."

Happosai stood up to his full height and spread his arms as wide as possible. He only came up to Ranma's knee. "I would, but I can't reach all the necessary points!"

Ranma just palmed his face.

"Ranma m' boy. It's dangerous to let someone running around if they can just steal techniques like that. We've got to figure out what's going on."

Ranma let out a big sigh. "I guess your right. I just want you to know I think that this is a really bad idea."

Happosai jumped up on to Ranma's shoulder and patted his head. "Great. Now, get going. I can feel her about three kilometers that way. Move!"

Ranma grumbled and took to the rooftops. As much as he hated to admit it, he was curious about what was going on himself.

=-=-=-=-

Rogue felt… unclean. Ruined. Despoiled. She wished she had the mental equivalent of a vomit reflex so she could purge the awful thoughts in her head she had absorbed from Happosai. Getting felt up was vile enough. Knowing what he was thinking when he did it made her want to bleach her grey matter or submit to a lobotomy.

She shuddered again just at the thought of him watching her in the dressing room. Mindful of her nakedness, Rogue looked around for her clothes. They unfortunately were incinerated with the rest of the shop, but at least her wallet was in passable condition. She grabbed her wallet and ran out of the rubble of the lingerie shop and into the clothing store across the street, trying her best to ignore the squawks of surprise from the other shoppers. She didn't have far to run. She ducked into the shop and grabbed a bunch of clothes off the racks and headed immediately for the changing room.

She ended up going through most of the clothes she brought into the room before she found some clothes that fit. Unfortunately, she did not manage to grab any underwear. The shopkeeper recovered from her shock and eventually inquired if Rogue needed any assistance. It was incredibly embarrassing, but at least she was able to ask the shopkeeper to find her some undergarments before her ability to speak Japanese faded. Luckily, the shop keeper was completely understanding of the situation; she let Rogue dress first before attempting to make a sale.

The clothing she was forced to wear was not nearly as covering as her uniform that got destroyed in the blast. She felt very exposed and vulnerable without gloves, but at least the long sleeved shirt and pants provided some coverage. Unfortunately, the shirt was never designed to contain a woman with such generous cleavage, and so she was practically bursting out of the top.

There was nothing to be done until she could get some real clothes again. Happosai's memories were starting to fade, mercifully. Unfortunately, it also meant her ability to speak Japanese would fade as well.

"Where's Logan when you need him?"

=-=-=-=

Ranma landed lightly on the roof next to the remains of the lingerie shop. "You sure she's still here, Happosai?"

Happosai nodded vigorously.

"How can you tell?" asked Ranma.

"I can… feel it."

"That's just creepy, you know that?"

Happosai shrugged. "Who cares? Now get down there and make your Master proud."

"You're not my Master."

"Feh. Whatever. Go stop that vampire before she strikes again!" With that, Happosai tossed Ranma off the roof and to the street below.

Ranma twisted in midair and landed on the street, glaring up at the current bane of his existence. He turned to go into the store, only to have the door open as he reached for the handle.

His target stood right in front of him. At least she was dressed. She stopped short as Ranma sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"I'm Ranma. Sorry about this."

The girl looked properly confused. Ranma struck in that instant. Stepping forward before she could react, he cupped her right breast with his left hand to press the three pressure points on her chest while pressing the two points on her back with his right.

=-=-=-=-

"I'm Ranma. Sorry about this."

Before Rogue could even react, the young man with a pigtail stepped up to her and grabbed her breast. The only problem was, the fingers of his left hand were touching her flesh.

She started to drain him.

=-=-=-=-

Ranma immediately realized something was wrong and tried to pull away. Happosai was right. It was like when Hinako drained him, only much more intense. He felt like he was going to black out, but was saved by the woman in question, who delivered a savage uppercut to his jaw and knocked him across the street into the remains of the burnt out lingerie shop. He tried to stand but was indescribably weak.

Across the street, the woman stalked towards him. He managed to finally take his feet just as she reached him. She reached forward and grabbed his shirt and pulled him forward. He was inches taller than her, but right now he barely had the strength to stand.

She pulled Ranma until they were face to face. In strangely accented Japanese, she said, "Hi Ranma. Mah name's Rogue, and I'm not sorry about this."

Then she proceeded to deliver a beating worthy of Akane on a bad day.

=-=-=-

End Chapter 1

AN: This came from all the stories I've read that are like, "ranma n' rogue, sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g..." Sure, I think a romance between them has potential... as in potential conflict! muwhhahahahahahah.

Ranma X Rogue. Should be fun. I make no promises on where this goes or how long I continue it. This is a product of the 400 words a day thing, except I wrote it all in one day. I've been working on the other stories, I promise. I've got 3 potential chapters for Idiot's guide, I've continued working on Speaking for the Dragon, and I've started on Golden Pairing. None of them came to me as easily as this one did, though.

Reviews welcome - thoughts, comments, suggestions taken into consideration. I don't know Rogue at all as a character (everything I'm using is from wiki). I don't have any source material to use to make an accurate personality profile for her. Any experts out there? Your advice/guidance on her character would be appreciated. I do want to keep her "sort" of in character.


	2. Chapter 2

Not my characters. But if I did have a super power, I'd want to be able to generate money like a Nintendo DS.

* * *

Chapter 2

Rogue stomped into the hotel lobby, grabbed the key to her room from the frightened desk clerk, and glowered at anyone who tried to get into the elevator as she headed to the suite she shared with Logan. There, she changed out of her ill-fitting clothes and into a more "normal" outfit that provided full body coverage, complete with a pair of gloves.

Then she sat down at the table, opened the minibar, and set to work. She was well into her third drink when Logan knocked on the door.

"Tough day?" Logan closed the door behind him. His nose wrinkled as the smell of alcohol hit him and he noticed that Rogue was sipping from lowball. "That whiskey?"

Sitting at the table next to the fridge, she hoisted her drink in a mock toast before knocking it back.

"Yup." She slurred. "'s good, too." She picked up the bottle and read the label. "Sun-to-ri u-isu-ki. Delicious." She popped the top of the bottle and proceeded to pour another drink. This one went down quickly, too.

Logan hung his coat up on in the closet and walked over to the table. "Are you drinking to get drunk or drinking to forget something?"

Rogue shuddered. "Forget."

"What's so bad you need to forget it this quickly?"

Rogue said one word, "Happosai," and then blanched.

"Happosai?" Logan frowned. "You had some bad Chinese food?"

"No. Just forget it." She reached for the bottle again. Logan stepped over and put the cap back in before she could pour and pulled it away from her.

"You're gonna have a hell of a hang over come morning time."

"S'worth it if I can forget the stuff up here." She poked her head.

Logan sat down on the corner of the bed and watched as she nursed the remnants of the drink. "Was it bad?"

"It was worse. Some pervert felt me up, and I was thinking his thoughts as he did it. I've never felt so dirty in my life." She tilted the glass back and drained the rest of her drink. She frowned. "But at least I got an objective opinion from a professional. Apparently, I'm a 'hot little ticket.'"

Logan laughed and immediately felt bad for doing so. "I should have warned you about the trains. Sorry."

Rogue waved his concern away. "Don't worry about it." She finally noticed that he was still wearing his battle uniform under his street clothes. "Long day at the office?"

Logan smiled darkly. "I've added a foot to my collection."

"You've got some real issues, you know that?"

"Yeah, well you need to get some food into you before you pass out. Come on, kid. I know a great restaurant around the corner."

She pulled off a glove and pointed in his direction. "Naw, just drain you, like I did that other guy."

"Maybe later. First, let's get you some food." Logan put the bottle back in the minibar. "They charge you an arm and a leg when you drink out of the fridge, anyway. Couldn't you have gone to the vending machines around the corner?"

"Sorry."

"Never mind. Let's find some food." He pulled the glass out of her hand and helped her stand up.

=-=-=-=-

"Hmm… let's see…" Happosai was currently administering treatment to Ranma. "I believe this joint goes this way…" He applied some pressure, forcing it to move.

CRACK.

And elicited a howl of pain from the currently incapacitated martial artist.

"Hm. Oops. Oh, I see." He muttered to himself. "Guess it goes like this. Let's try this again."

CRACK.

"GAAAAHHH!!!"

"Oh hush, you baby. It doesn't hurt that much." Happosai ignored Ranma's protests as he "fixed" yet another joint. This was followed by much cursing and screaming.

"Yes it does!"

"Really?" Happosai asked.

Ranma sat up, prepared to inflict massive damage on the old man. Then he realized he could actually sit up, rather than just twitch on the ground. "Huh. Fine. Just finish up quickly, alright?"

Happosai smirked. "Sure thing." CRACK.

"GAHHH!"

=-=-=

Sometime later, Ranma crawled out of the crater he'd been embedded in and slowly climbed to his feet. Happosai was already sitting on the roof a nearby shop, smoking his pipe and gazing off in the distance.

With a sigh, Ranma leapt to the rooftop and sat down next to the old pervert. As much as he hated to admit it, Happosai was still a better marital artist than him. "Doctor Tofu you are not."

"A little gratitude would be appreciated. Would you prefer I leave you in the hole tied up like a pretzel until someone takes pity on you?"

Ranma ignored the comment. "I wouldn't have been in that hole if not for you." He looked over the city skyline. "Any idea where she ran off to?"

Happosai pulled his pipe out of his mouth and pointed to a high rise in the center of town. "She's over in that direction."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get her." Ranma started to rise but Happosai shot out a hand and swept his feet out from under him, causing him to crash to the roof.

"Patience, my boy. Patience." He took a drag on the pipe. "Just how do you plan on fighting someone like that?"

Ranma rubbed his cheek from where he slammed into the roof tile. "What do you mean? Same way I fight everyone."

"And how well did that just work?"

Ranma opened his mouth, but closed it when he realized what Happosai was talking about.

Happosai blew some smoke into the air. "You can't fight a vampire like that normally. What did you notice about your fight, if I can call your pathetic stand against her a fight?"

"Not much. I was too drained to do much more than stand there."

"Exactly. How did she drain you?"

"I don't know. I touched her and then…" Ranma trailed off. "I touched her. Every time we touched, she got stronger and I got weaker." Ranma's trade mark cocky grin started to appear. "Feh. This is in the bag. It's easy. I just can't let her touch me. It's like the breaking point."

Happosai chuckled. "You think it's that easy, do you? This technique of hers actually works on humans. You're gonna need something better than just not getting touched."

"What about pressure points?"

"Know any that don't require touching your opponent?"

Ranma frowned. "You think ki blasts would work on her?"

"I don't know. I doubt it, though. If her technique works anything like the one I used on Hinako, she'll absorb it all and become stronger for it. Best not to try until you've got no other option."

"You know," Ranma said, "there is another option."

"What's that?" Happosai arched an eyebrow.

"We leave her alone. She didn't do anything to us, and she certainly doesn't deserve being subjected to you."

Happosai whipped his pipe around and slammed Ranma through the roof.

"Okay…" came the weak voice from below, "we'll give things a shot your way first."

=-=-=-=-

Dinner started off with a quick pick-me-up of Rogue stealing some of Wolverine's healing factor to help her liver process the drinks floating around her system. Wolverine ordered some food while she sobered up. Once the food arrived, she launched into describing what happened.

"So then the same guy I blasted just a couple of minutes earlier comes up to me and apologizes, then he just grabs me…"

"Grabs you?" Logan interrupted. "Where?"

"Here." Rogue held her hand above her breast to give Logan a good indication of exactly where she had been grabbed. "He wasn't gentle, either." She heard the tale-tell sound of adamantium claws sliding out through skin. "Put those away before someone notices. He was trying to be helpful."

"Helpful? He grabbed you there," Logan gestured with his hands to the general region of her bosoms, "and you call him helpful?"

"He thought that if he triggered a certain set of pressure points, he could stop my powers."

Logan looked puzzled.

"Look, I don't remember why he thought that. I didn't absorb enough of his memories to know why he believed that, and I've forgotten most of them already, anyway. I just know he thought grabbing me like that would stop my ability to drain people." Rogue shrugged.

"So, what did you do?" Logan picked up some vegetables from the table and popped him in his mouth.

"I beat the crap out of him." Said Rogue. "Nobody grabs me like that without asking first."

"Good for you." He said.

"But here's the funny thing, Logan." She leaned forward. "He's good. Really good."

"What do you mean, good?"

"Martial artists. And I mean good. Better than you, I think. Probably better than anyone but that old man who grabbed me. I used his own skills against him, and I don't think I've ever felt more powerful. This guy's scary."

"Mutant?"

"No." Rogue shook her head emphatically. "Definitely not. Just…" She sighed.

"Just what?"

"Just incredible. I can't remember much now, but some of the stuff he's done makes our little adventures seem tame."

"And you're sure he's not a mutant?"

"We could always have Xavier check, but I'm pretty sure he's normal."

Logan quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Well, relatively normal, anyway."

=-=-=-=-

"There." Happosai pointed to the restaurant window from his vantage point on the rooftop across the street. "See them?"

Ranma looked over the edge of the building. He could just make out the dark haired women talking to a rather tall, well built man. "He seems like a fighter."

Happosai nodded. "Probably her jealous boyfriend. Things just got interesting."

"What do you mean?"

"You take the boyfriend." With that, Happosai jumped.

"What? HEY, come back here!" Ranma reached out to snag the back of Happosai's gi, but just missed. The old man launched himself over the edge and headed towards the restaurant at full speed. Cursing, he followed after to try and prevent whatever scheme bouncing around in that perverted head of his.

Time seemed to slow down as Happosai launched himself at the woman, announcing his battle cry.

=-=-=-=-=-

"SWEEETOOO!!!"

The sound had barely registered before she felt something attached to her chest.

"Come to papa!" it said.

Rogue jumped out of her seat. "Get it off, GET IT OFF!" She beat at the thing attached to her chest, but couldn't remove it for the life of her.

The weight was suddenly removed by a black and red blur. The blur materialized into the same man she'd beaten up earlier today, who proceeded to slam Happosai into the ground.

"I thought you said you were going to help her, you old fart! That didn't look very helpful to me!" He shouted.

"Ranma! How dare you deny an old man his pleasures!" Happosai looked up from the ground. "I thought I told you to take care of the boyfriend."

"Wha?" Ranma twisted just in time to dodge a fast moving punch that shattered the wall behind him.

The boyfriend growled as he attacked as viciously as possible. With Happosai attached to his leg, Ranma dodged as best he could. To create a little space (and mimimize the damage to the restaurant), Ranma kicked Happosai out the open door and leapt after him.

The boyfriend followed closely behind. Once in the street, Ranma turned and took up a ready stance.

"I'm gonna enjoy this, punk."

Ranma blinked. "You speak Japanese?"

"Yeah. And when I'm done with you, you won't be able to." With that, he attacked. Ranma was impressed; the man had great deal of speed, skill, and strength. He flipped out of the way of an uppercut and landed a few meters away, creating some space.

Ranma held up his hands. "I'm not after your girl or anything."

"Don't care, kid." Ranma dodged another swipe. "Now stand still and let me beat you to a pulp."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Happosai groping that woman again. Frustrated, Ranma said, "Sorry 'bout this" and finally struck back, slipping past Logan's defenses and delivering a couple of punishing blows that would have been sufficient to knock out Kuno, expecting that to be enough to end the fight. His opponent shrugged them off and capitalized on the opening to deliver a gut shot strong enough to bend him over double. That was followed by a quick elbow to the back. Before the combo could be completed, Ranma rolled out of the way and stood up.

"Okay. That's a surprise." The blows really hadn't hurt him, but he certainly wasn't expecting this level of competence.

Logan grinned. "There more where that came from."

No longer feeling the need to hold back quite as much, Ranma matched his grin and attacked.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!"

With Happosai firmly lodged between her breasts, there was little she could do to remove him. The repulsive little troll was holding on tighter than an octopus. Desperate to remove him, she pulled a glove off with her teeth and reached for his head.

Then she stopped. Did she really want his memories?

Happosai squeezed again and nuzzled closer, releasing a sigh of contentment.

That made her decision for her. She couldn't. As much as she wanted him off, some things just weren't worth it. A loud shout pulled her attention away from the monstrosity on her chest over to where Logan was fighting with Ranma. Pulling the other glove off while she ran, she reached the pair right as they crashed into each other.

They were so intent on each other that before either could react she was able to reach out with her hands and grabbed bare skin.

She held on as long as she thought was safe. She knew she'd need more than just a few seconds of their abilities to be able to defeat this menace. Surprisingly, Logan dropped first, then Ranma.

The flood of memories gave her a headache until Logan's healing factor kicked in. She looked down with an evil grin as she felt the bone claws slide out from between her knuckles. Operation: excise breast cancer commencing! Rogue proceeded to remove Happosai as painfully as possible.

=-=-=-=-

Logan groaned as he came to. Rogue was crouched nervously beside him, biting her lower lip.

"I'm sorry Logan! I had to." She shuddered. "He was attached to me! He was taking… liberties."

Rolling on to his side, he forced himself up onto all fours but was unable to do more than that for some time. Even with his healing factor, being drained by Rogue was a bitch. "Don't worry about it, kid."

He finally managed to sit back on his haunches to see that his opponent was sitting Indian-style on the asphalt, clutching his head.

"Sucks, don't it?" Asked Logan.

Ranma only nodded his head.

Logan pointed at himself. "Logan." Then he nodded in Rogue's direction, but winced as it caused his head to pound. "That's Rogue."

Ranma nodded. "Ranma Saotome."

"Think you can stand?" Rogue asked nervously in English.

Ranma cocked his head. "She doesn't speak Japanese?"

Logan shook his head. "Not really. It's a short term thing."

"Oh." He turned to Rogue and gave her the thumbs up. He stood up, slowly. "Where did Happosai go?"

Logan asked Rogue. Ranma was unable to follow the speed of the conversation, and merely waited until Logan could translate.

"She said she punted him off in that direction." Logan finally said.

Ranma knew there was probably a lot of detail in that explanation he missed, but he didn't care at this point. "Good." Just then, his stomach growled. He laughed sheepishly.

Logan smiled. "Come on. Let's get some food. Getting drained always makes me hungry, too."

=-=-=-=-=-

"He probably thinks I'm a freak, doesn't he?" She asked.

Seeing Ranma's blank look, Logan translated.

"Not really. Par for the course around here. Besides, I've seen weirder." Ranma shrugged. "So, how did you get that ability?" Ranma busily slurped up his bowl of noodles as he listened to Logan explain that Rogue's abilities were natural. He whistled in appreciation.

"So you get their memories _and _abilities? That's pretty cool." Ranma shoved a face full of noodles in his mouth as he waited for Logan relay the information. Her face fell when at his statement, and he could practically feel the depression rolling off her in waves, familiar enough with feeling of heavy emotions from his experiment with learning how to do ki blasts.

He was confused. "What did I say?" Ranma asked.

"It ain't that easy, kid." Logan sighed. He jerked her head in Rogue's direction. "She can't control it. It just happens. If she touches someone, she drains them. It doesn't just drain their abilities. She drains their life force, too."

"Their life force? You mean ki?" Ranma asked.

"Ki, chi, whatever you want to call it. How much she drains depends on how long she holds on. Too long and she'll kill them." Logan said.

"She can't control it?" Ranma frowned.

"Nope. That's why she always covers up completely."

"To minimize the chance of direct skin-to-skin contact, right?" Ranma took another bite of noodles. "Must get uncomfortable in the summer."

"Sure, you laugh about it." Logan leaned forward. "Think it through, though. You're an attractive young lady, and you can't ever touch someone because you're afraid you'll kill them. The first boy she kissed, she put in a coma. That was seven years ago. He still hasn't come out of it."

"Oh." Ranma almost dropped his chopsticks.

"Yeah. Oh. So before you go on about how cool it is, remember it's not all it's cracked up to be."

"Yeah, got it." Ranma frowned. "She has no control at all? It just happens?"

"As far as we've been able to tell, yeah."

"Hmm..." Ranma let his chopsticks dangle from his mouth as he thought furiously. "She can't drain at a distance, right?"

"Nope. Only by touching."

"Well, what about…"

=-=-=-

Rogue listened to the flow of words back and forth between Logan and Ranma, not understanding the slightest thing. Logan had stopped translating a while ago as he and Ranma discussed something back and forth. It was obviously about her, as Ranma kept looking at her then asking questions.

She was almost tempted to touch Logan to understand the conversation. Instead, she just turned around in her seat, intent on ordering some additional food. However, her elbow struck her water glass as she turned and sprayed the contents across the table, directly onto Ranma.

Both X-men blinked as Ranma shifted gender. Logan reached over and poked Ranma in her now quite generous bust, only to earn a swift right cross to the jaw.

Rubbing his jaw, Logan whispered with amazement, "their real." Ranma immediately started gesticulating and speaking rapidly, to which Logan merely nodded repeatedly.

Finally she couldn't stand it any more. Taking off a glove, she lightly touched her finger tips to Logan's arm and held it there until he slumped slightly in his chair. Before he got too weak, she pulled her arm finger off.

She missed whatever Ranma said initially as she tried to sort out the jumble of thoughts in her head.

"… and if you ever touch my boobs again without asking, I'm gonna pound the livin' daylights out of ya, ya got that?" Ranma snarled.

"Their real?" asked Rogue. "Did you really just turn into a girl?"

Ranma snorted. "Yeah, I did."

"I mean, one hundred percent woman? With… ya know, monthly visitors and everything?"

Ranma crossed her arms under her chest. "It's not funny."

"I never said it was."

Ranma brightened. "Hey, you're speakin' Japanese again!"

She held up her bare hand. "I touched him."

"Oh… Man! That's so cool!"

Rogue smiled. "I'm glad you think so. How," she pointed at Ranma's chest, "did that happen?"

"Like I was telling Logan over here, my dad took me to this cursed training ground. Long story short, lots of little pools of water, lots of curses. I got one, but at least I stay human."

"But how did you change?" She asked.

"Oh, I change every time I get…" Ranma continued speaking, but Rogue was no longer able to understand her. Ranma continued to rattle on, but finally slowed down as it became apparent that Rogue could no longer follow the conversation.

Ranma pointed at Logan and then her hands. Rogue shook her head. She'd drained Logan enough today already, and risking any more would be tempting fate. Ranma seemed to understand, because she then pointed at herself.

Rogue held up her bare hand and pointed at Ranma. The girl nodded and held her hand out over the table. Hesitantly, Rogue reached over and lightly rested her fingertips on the back of Ranma's hand. Ranma's eyes narrowed as she watched the process.

Rogue touched her for a good thirty seconds before Ranma's arm started to droop. She immediately pulled away, the rush of memories flooding her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to sort out the various images flashing through her brain.

She shuddered and let out a big sigh.

"Does it hurt?"

Rogue shook her head. "No, but it messes me up in here." She poked her temple. "It gets really confusing." She paused. "Do you really have three fiancées?"

Ranma looked tired, but in better shape than Logan. "Yeah. I don't want any of them, but what can I do?" She shrugged. "Can you control what memories you get?"

Rogue shook her head.

"Does anything stay afterwards?"

"Not really. I mean, sometimes a little bit might remain. Like the lyrics to a song I didn't know before, or some other bit of useless trivia. But it fades really fast. The longer I hold on, the longer I remember. But I can never tell what's going to stay and what won't."

"Has anyone ever tried to help you control it?"

Rogue shook her head. "Not really. I mean, how can they? What are they going to help me control? I don't even know what or how I'm doing it."

"Well, you could probably control your ki, for one." She squinted. "From where I'm sittin', your ki signature looks all wacky. It's hard to describe."

"Ki signature." She asked. "What's ki?"

"The stuff you're draining." Ranma said. "Life force."

Before she could ask any more follow up questions, she could feel the language start to bleed from her mind. "Shit. Ranma, I just wanted to apologize for earlier today." By the end of the sentence she realized she was speaking English again.

"Crap." Frustrated, she looked over to Logan, who was just recovering from her last drain.

Ranma pointed at herself. "Is okay! I is speak little English."

Rogue pointed at Logan. "I need to get him to the hotel. Can you help?" Standing up, she put on her gloves again and wrapped of Logan's arms around her neck. She pantomimed pulling him from his chair.

Ranma nodded and got up from the table himself, but not before throwing a couple of bills on the table. Throwning Logan's other arm around her shoulders, Ranma helped rogue walk Logan out of the building.

=-=-=-

Logan was able to walk on his own by the time the got to the room. Ranma dropped him off and beat a hasty retreat, but not before Rogue managed to make him understand she wanted to talk with him tomorrow about ki. Worn out herself from the two drains she had endured, Ranma she walked home slowly to conserve her energy and think about the days events.

By the time she turned the key in the lock of her apartment, she had already though up of a dozen different ideas about ki draining that she wanted to explore. Unfortunately, it would require more expertise than she had.

That meant either Happosai or Cologne. Of the two, right now she'd rather deal with Happosai if it meant avoiding one of his fiancées.

But first she filled a cup of water from the sink and put it in the microwave. After a minute it was hot enough to change her back into her real form. However, as soon as she changed she nearly collapsed in exhaustion. Cursing her lapse in attention, he crawled to his futon and fell in a boneless heap.

Yet another thing to keep in mind. His female half took the drain much better than his male half. Unable to stay awake much longer, Ranma drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

=-=-=-

"Logan, what's ki?" Rogue asked.

"Ki, chi, chakra… Lots of words for the same thing, really." Logan was currently sprawled out on the bed, too enervated to do much more than talk.

"Yes, but what is it?" She asked again.

"Mythical mumbo-jumbo that most martial artists believe is your life force. Some claim if you get good enough, you can throw it around like a weapon." He snorted. "I'm not sure I believe it, though."

"Ranma can do it."

That brought Logan up short. "Really?"

She tapped her head. "I can remember him using some sort of ki blast to destroy a mountain."

"No shit?"

"No shit."

Logan grunted. "Damn."

"He also said that my 'ki signature's' messed up, and that I should learn to control it. What do you think that means?"

"I don't know, Rogue." Logan turned his head so he could look at her on the other bed. "But if this guy really can control his ki like that, you've got nothing to lose by trying to learn it. It could help."

"Yeah. That's what I was thinking." Talking to Ranma Saotome tomorrow would be interesting.

* * *

Again, I don't know much about Rogue. I'm sort of picking and choosing her attributes based of wikipedia. She doesn't have the Ms. Marvel powers or anything. She basically just drains and forgets, and holds onto the powers depending on how long she touches someone.

This story will feature lots of Happosai. You've been warned! :)

Of all the characters, he's by far the most entertaining.


	3. Chapter 3

Merry Christmas. Won't be updating again till at least 2009.

Enjoy!

=-=-=-

Chapter 3

Ranma woke the next morning feeling like he'd been drinking all night. He groaned, rolled out of bed and stumbled his way to the bathroom. A quick shower and some breakfast helped him feel a bit more normal, but he could tell his ki reserves were a bit lower than usual. He punched a number into his cell phone as he headed out the door to his tiny apartment, hoping to confirm some lingering suspicions about the effects of that girl's strange abilities. He wasn't willing to ask Happosai for help yet, knowing the price would be something perverted.

The phone rang twice before it was answered. "Hello, Tendo Dojo. How can I help you?"

"Kasumi?"

"Ara! Ranma. What can I help you with today? Don't you have classes today?"

"Today's off for me. Is your husband around?"

"Tofu? No, he's at the clinic today. Are you injured?"

"No, nothing like that. Do you think Tofu would mind if I drop by his office? I just wanted to ask him some questions."

"I don't think he would. Should I call him up and let him know your coming?"

"Sure, Kasumi. I'd appreciate that. Did Happosai make it home last night?"

"I don't think he did. I haven't seen him today. Father's here if you want to talk with him, though."

"I'll pass. If Happosai comes home before I get there, can you tell him not to go anywhere because I'm on my way? Or better yet, have him call me on my cell phone."

They ended up chatted for a few more minutes before he finally hung up. From downtown Tokyo to Nerima was quite a distance, and even at the speeds Ranma traveled roof-to-roof, it was the better part of an hour before he dropped down next to the front door of the Tendo Dojo.

He took off his shoes before he entered in the house and carried them in.

"Yo, Kasumi," he called, "it's Ranma."

Ranma smiled fondly as he waited for to Kasumi come out of the kitchen, most likely wiping her hands on an apron. Kasumi had been indirectly responsible for the fact he was still friends with Akane. After he broke it off with his fiancée, he'd taken off on a "training trip" to get away from all his various obligations and Tokyo. He ended up using the time to track down Doctor Tofu, who'd returned to his mother's place out west and convinced him come back to Nerima in order to propose to Kasumi.

Ranma believed that if he couldn't make Akane happy, then at least one Tendo deserved to be. Nabiki hadn't even entered his calculations.

Returning to Nerima with Doctor Tofu had been difficult. Not because Tofu hadn't wanted to come back, but because he was still a nervous wreck around Kasumi. Ranma didn't have the slightest clue about how to break him of his nervous habits. To top it all off, once word got out that Ranma was back in town his fiancées immediately wanted his attention again. Akane was still hurt from him breaking the engagement and so was a touch violent around him and the other girls. It was like a return to the bad days in high school, pre-Saffron.

To keep the other fiancées at bay, they were forced to present a unified, "happy couple" front to the rest of world. Given that underlying sexual attraction was still there, Akane had hoped to reconcile with Ranma and eventually get back together. They ended up fighting worse than ever until they began working on breaking Doctor Tofu of his "Kasumi disease."

Having something else to focus on, namely, Kasumi's happiness, had given them neutral ground on which to rebuild their friendship. It took almost a year before the awkwardness faded and Akane realized they were both happier just being friends.

Kasumi's soft footsteps broke him out of his reverie. "Ranma! That was quick. Did you take public transportation?"

"Naw, I ran." He puffed his chest out. "Good training."

"You must be thirsty! Can I get you some tea?"

"That'd be awesome, Kasumi. Thanks."

She nodded and went back into the kitchen. Marriage had been good for Kasumi in a number of ways. With her sisters now all adults and out of the house, she'd been able to allow herself out of the cage she'd been trapped in since her mother died. As a result, she was as nice as ever, but her personality had a chance to shine through.

He followed her for a bit, and rather than sitting down at the low dining table, he sat down on the deck, allowing his feet to hang over the edge as he leaned back on his hands, taking in the back yard. As much as he hated to admit it, he'd really miss this place when the time came to break the news.

Kasumi quietly knelt beside him and placed two cups of tea on the deck. Placing the tray to the other side, she picked up her own cup and blew across the top. "What did you want to talk to Tofu about?"

"There's this girl…"

Kasumi interrupted, looking scandalized. "Ranma! What will Akane think!"

He immediately began waving his hands in front of her as he protested loudly, "it ain't like that!" He was about to launch into an explanation when he noticed the slight wrinkle at the corner of her eyes. His protestations died as he realized he'd been had. "You're kidding me, aren't you?"

She blushed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have!"

Ranma snorted. "Naw, I deserved it."

"About this girl?" Kasumi prompted.

"Oh, right. She's some kind of ki vampire, like Hinako, but much more potent. I was hoping he could help me figure out some way of dealing with it."

"Why?"

Ranma mumbled something about what happened the day before.

"Did you just say she beat you up?" This time Kasumi didn't even try to hide her mirth.

"Not exactly."

Kasumi cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

"On her own, she couldn't. But she kind of like, borrows your abilities." He shrugged. "You could say I beat myself up, 'cause she was using my skills."

"Hmm…" Kasumi took a sip of her tea, still amused. "Maybe Tofu will have some ideas about how to help."

"Hope so. Only other option's Happosai, and I don't want to do that unless I gotta." Ranma picked up his own cup of tea and took a sip.

"So, when are you going to tell Father about you and Akane?"

Kasumi's question came so unexpectedly that he spit out half the tea was across the yard; the portion he hadn't spit out poured down his open windpipe, scalding his throat. Coughing furiously, he attempted to catch his breath so he could ask, "What do you mean?"

Kasumi gave him a flat look that reminded him of Nabiki. She shared the same genes as her sisters, and had the same intellectual capacity as Nabiki, and the same passion as Akane. She was smart, observant, and no longer had to act oblivious to keep the house from tearing itself apart.

Kasumi patted his back as he tried to catch his breath. "How long have you two been separated?"

He winced. "About two years?"

Her eyebrow rose. "That long? But you guys looked so happy when you were working with Tofu…" She trailed off.

"We both wanted you to be happy." Ranma shrugged. "You wouldn't have accepted Tofu's proposal if you knew what was going on with us."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Ranma tilted his cup to take a sip, but realized the cup was empty. He put it down with a sigh. "There's no way I'm marrying those other girls."

"And Akane?"

"She's my best friend, and…" He looked around, suddenly nervous about Soun Tendo's location, in case he should overhear. "She's a lesbian," he whispered. "She's got someone. Great girl. They're really happy together."

Kasumi didn't seem surprised. "I always thought she might be." She tapped her pursed lips with a finger. "I can see why that would be problematic."

Ranma nodded. "It's better this way."

"How are you going to satisfy the pledge?"

He sighed. "I'll think of something." Almost to himself, he added. "I hope."

Kasumi reached for the tray, took his tea cup from him, and rose gracefully. "You're always welcome here, Ranma."

"Thanks, Kasumi."

"I mean always."

He was going to say something flippant about how that was until Soun found out, but he looked up at her and noticed the determined look in her eyes. He swallowed. "Thanks, Kasumi. That…" he trailed off. "That means a lot to me."

"I know." She bent over and kissed him on top of the head. "Will you bring Tofu his lunch?"

=-=-=-=-

Ranma changed genders on the way over to the Tofu's, courtesy of the old ladle maid that used to nail him on his way to Furinkan. Grumbling about ladle ninjas as he walked in the door of clinic, she waved at the receptionist and hoisted the wrapped bundle in her other hand. The receptionist waved him right through, and Ranma slipped  
around back towards the examination rooms.

She knocked at the door and opened it in time to see Tofu straighten from the table where he was wrapping up the examination of an elderly patient. "Ranma! Come on in!" Tofu nodded at the gentleman on the table. "Can you just wait while I finish my write up?"

"Sure." Ranma placed the bundle on the countertop next to the sink. "Kasumi sends lunch and love."

Tofu smiled brightly. He scribbled a hasty note on the file in front of him, gave a couple of therapy recommendations to his patient, and helped the old man get dressed and escorted him out of the room. He came back a few minutes later and eagerly opened the bundle Ranma had brought.

"Oh yum!" The smell of delicious food wafted from the box. "Nikujaga!"

"I'm jealous."

Tofu waggled his eyebrows. "You had your chance, you know."

Ranma grinned. "Who says it's too late?"

Tofu shook his head at the private joke. It had taken to a little healthy competition for Tofu to get over his Kasumi disease. As soon as someone else had shown interest in dating her, Tofu had become… serious.

"What brings you here today?" Rather than eat in front of his guest, Tofu replaced the lid to the lunchbox.

"Got any hot water?"

Tofu chuckled. "Always."

A quick sex change later and Ranma stood up straight. "What do you notice about my aura?"

Tofu pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose and peered closely at Ranma. "Hmm… Were you drinking last night?"

Ranma shook his head. "Not a drop. But I woke up feeling hung over. See, there's this girl…" Ranma began to explain about Rogue and her abilities. Tofu listened to the story carefully, asking questions about the actual process and what it felt like.

"And you say it only happens with skin-to-skin contact, right? Not through her aura, or at a distance?"

Ranma shook his head. "No, just skin."

"Only her fingers, or any skin?"

Ranma paused. "Any skin, I think. Logan said she'd kissed a boy once and put him in a coma."

"A coma?" Tofu's eyebrows raised a fraction.

"Yeah. That's the problem. She can't control it. It's pretty dangerous."

"Your aura…" Tofu looked like he had a sudden flash of insight. "How many times did she drain you yesterday?"

"A couple, maybe three times?" Ranma shrugged.

"Did you lose consciousness?" Tofu asked.

"The second time, yeah." Ranma nodded. "It's much different than with Hinako. With Hinako, you can feel yourself losing your energy and will to fight. With Rogue, it's more like… You feel fine one second, then BAM!" He slapped his fist into his palm, "its lights out."

"Hmm… That could explain why you look so… pinched."

"Yeah, what's going on with that?" Ranma asked. "Should I be worried?"

Tofu shook his head. "No, just eat some food and you'll be fine with time."

"What happened, though?"

Tofu sat down on the edge of the examination bed. "Normal people don't have really developed ki pathways. The amount of ki they consciously utilize on a day to day basis is miniscule. So, their body doesn't really need pathways for ki to travel." He took off his glasses and polished them. "For someone like you, however…"

"God's gift to women?" Ranma interrupted.

"I was going to say freakishly over-powered martial artist with no sense of self preservation, but yes, for someone like you…" Tofu continued, not missing a beat. "The demands you place on your body means large quantities of ki are necessary rapidly to prevent permanent damage. So, your body, over the years, has developed certain pathways that ki travels throughout your body."

"And?"

"My guess is she drained your ki reserves fairly low. If you think of your ki pathways like your blood vessels, then it makes perfect sense. What happens to a vein that isn't filled with blood?"

Ranma scratched his head. "Bad things?"

Tofu rolled his eyes and put his glasses back on. "It collapses, silly."

"Collapses? That sounds bad."

Tofu shrugged. "It's okay. As soon as your ki reserves build back up, they'll open up again. It's like blood pressure. If there isn't enough pressure to keep them fully open, they fall in on themselves. Minor thing, really."

"Glad you think so, at least." Ranma pointed to the sink. "It's less of a problem in my girl form."

Tofu scratched his nose. "I would think that's because the amount of ki in your body is constant, but the size of your body is not. When you switch forms, the same amount of ki is distributed through different size containers."

"Body size means less is more. Gotcha." Ranma paused. "Any suggestions for this girl, though? Her ki signature is seriously messed up. It's like watching a kaleidoscope. Any thoughts on what could cause that?"

Tofu shook his head. "None. Sorry. I've never heard of something like this before. I'll do some research and ask around, but I can't promise you anything. Have you considered asking Happosai? He's probably the most knowledgeable ki adept I know."

Ranma sighed. "Yeah, and he's also the biggest pervert. He's the reason why I'm coming to you for help. If he had just left her alone, none of this would have been a problem.

Tofu shrugged. "Be that as it may, he's still probably your best bet."

Ranma realized only after the fact he had no idea how to get a hold of Rogue. So, instead he went to the hotel where he'd dropped her off the day before. He couldn't remember the room number and he ended up sitting in the lobby for a couple of hours until she came in through the front doors, carrying a load of shopping bags slung over  
her shoulders.

He quickly abandoned the drink he'd been nursing and walked over to her.

"Rogue!"

She turned around in time to see him walking up. She gave him a small smile and hefted the bags. He noticed she was again wearing tight clothing that didn't allow any skin to show except at her face.

"I help?" Ranma asked in broken English. He pantomimed lifting the bags. A small part of his mind regretted ever making fun of Xian Pu's Japanese. Her language skills were certainly much better than his. He was immediately rewarded with a grateful nod as she slumped forward enough to allow the bags to fall off her shoulders. He reached out  
and took the handles of the first bunch, brushing against her gloved hands. Reassured when nothing happened, he grabbed the rest of the bags lifted.

He watched in some bemusement as Rogue muttered in relief and rubbed her shoulders where the bags had been resting. He followed her to the elevator, where she kept sneaking glances at him as he watched the numbers light up until a pair of doors opened up. Once in the elevator, she finally asked him how he was feeling. There were some  
other words in there as well, probably some sort of apology judging by the look on her face.

"I's fine. No worries! Strong like bull!" Ranma flexed his arms slightly.

Rogue erupted in laughter, to his consternation. She immediately rattled of some sort of gasping explanation that he couldn't follow. Seeing his blank look, her laughter trailed off a bit, but the smile remained. The elevator doors opened and gestured down the hall in the direction of her room.

Once she had used the keycard to open the suite, Ranma hefted the bags and asked. "Where?"

"Over there." She pointed to a corner. "How much English do you understand, anyway?"

"Little." He put the bags down. "You accent very hard for me." He pointed at his ear.

"Sorry, can't help it. Raised in the south." She pointed at the fridge. "Something to drink?"

"No thank you." Ranma looked around the suite. "Logan?"

"Not here, unfortunately." Rogue shrugged her shoulders.

Ranma frowned at this. This could make explaining things difficult. He pointed at one of the chairs. "Sit down?"

"Oh, right! Sure." Rogue pulled the chairs out from under the table. Ranma sank into one and she took the one opposite of him.

Ranma looked around the room for a second, and spotted a drinking glass with water on one of the night stands. Hopping out of the chair, she walked over to the glass and dumped the contents on her head. Shaking her hair out, sat back down and then pointed at her head, then at Rogue's hands. "You touch?"

Rogue looked nervous. "Are you sure?"

Ranma nodded. "Hard to explain. Need good language."

"Right." Hesitantly, Rogue pulled off one glove and touched her fingertips to the skin near Ranma's temple. She held it there for a good minute until Ranma began to slump, then pulled away. The rush of memories prevented her from being able to think clearly for a few seconds.

When she finally looked up, Ranma looked tired. "Look, we probably don't have a lot of time, so just listen. Your ability…" She trailed off, thinking of the how he wanted to explain it. This would be so much easier if his English was better. Something for another time, perhaps. "I know another like you."

Rogue lit up. "Really?"

Ranma nodded. "Yes. She steals ki from other people because as a child, she was too sickly to generate enough ki on her own. She's healthy now, but only because she's can steal ki when ever she wants. But she can't control the ki she's stolen."

Rogue frowned.

Ranma held her hands traced the outline of her form. "Your aura feels weird. It constantly shifts, and I've never seen that before."

"Watch." Ranma pulled her legs up into the chair, taking a lotus posture as she slowed her breathing. Concentrating on her navel, she began to focus her ki outwards, till her aura began to flicker around her, a soft light blue color.

Rogue's eyes opened wide. "What was that?"

The color faded as Ranma focused his concentration back on Rogue. "Ki. That's me pushing my ki outwards till you can see it." She pointed at her. "But it's only one color. Yours…" she shrugged. "It's like watching a kaleidoscope."

"So what does that mean?"

Ranma shrugged. "I've got no idea. But if I had to start somewhere with this ability of yours, I'd focus on the most obvious things and work from there. Your aura's the most noticeable thing."

Rogue could feel her grasp of the language slipping from her mind like water. She looked up at Ranma and tapped her forehead. "I'm losing it."

Ranma didn't think she'd be able to stand another drain so soon. As it was, she felt incredibly fatigued from the one she'd endured just a minute or two ago. Rogue's frustration was clearly evident as well as the girl began to chew her lower lip, obviously wishing they could continue the previous conversation.

Ranma mulled the words in English over in her mind, trying to figure out what to do next. Transferring language wasn't an option since she'd lose too much ki to be useful afterwards. If there was some way to control what got taken... It was worth a shot. Ranma pointed at her fingers. "Want to try something. When ready, you touch." She pointed at the palm of her other hand. "Touch here, but no touch."

Rogue looked confused. "I don't understand."

Ranma held up a hand. Concentrating, forced a small amount of ki out of her body through the palm of her hand, where it formed into a ball the size of a golf ball. Sweat immediately broke out on her forehead. She was too tired for this, but she needed to check. In a strained grunt, Ranma said, "Touch ball, no touch me."

Hesitantly, Rogue put her fingertips forward and touched the swirling ball of blue ki. Nothing happened. She looked up at Ranma and shook her head.

With a sigh, Ranma allowed the ball to dissipate. She slumped forward.

"You alright?" Asked Rogue.

Ranma smiled wanly. "Tired." She sighed and stood up out of the chair and moved in the direction of the hotel room door. Unfortunately, she never made it as exhaustion hit her. She pitched sideways and collapsed onto one of the beds, asleep before she even hit the coverlet.

=-=-=-=-

Elsewhere in Nerima, a great evil stirred.

"Ara! Grandfather Happosai! Welcome home!" Kasumi smiled brightly as the diminutive pervert hopped over the back wall surrounding the yard of the Tendo Dojo. "Ranma said he was looking for you!"

"Did he now?" Happosai asked. "Did he say what it was about?"

"Something about some girl who drained ki…" Kasumi blinked. A small dust devil swirled in the spot where Happosai had been standing. Over the rooftops, she could just make out the sounds of "SWEEEETOOOO!" trailing off into the distance.

=-=-=-=-

Logan inserted the keycard into the suite door and shifted the shopping back to his left hand. Opening the suite door, he stopped when caught a strange smell. Wary, he called out, "Rogue?"

"Shhh…" The girl came out from around the corner with her fingers to her lips. "Ranma's asleep."

"Asleep?" Logan whispered. "Why?"

Rogue looked away.

"Ah." Closing the door gently with his foot, Logan walked into the suite to see a very female Ranma sprawled out across one of the coverlets. "What happened?"

Rogue sighed. "We needed the language. I guess I took too much ki, or he pushed himself too hard."

Logan grunted and put his shopping bag on the floor next to the rest of their stuff. "How long has she been out?"

"About an hour."

"Learn anything useful?"

"Nothing." Rogue wrapped her arms around herself, hugging her shoulders. "At least, not yet. Some of the stuff we talked about has potential, at least." Rogue frowned a bit at the sleeping figure. "It doesn't seem to affect you this much when I drain you."

Logan shrugged. "It actually does, but the healing factor makes up for it. The kid's got to recover the old fashion way."

"Right." Rogue sighed and sat down on the corner of the bed.

"You hungry?"

Rogue looked up. "A little bit. I missed lunch."

"What do you want?"

"Whatever. I don't care." She shrugged.

Logan nodded. "Alright. I've got to go use the can. Why don't you wake her up? I know she probably needs the sleep, but I'm sure Ranma will feel better with some food."

Rogue waited until he was in the bathroom before she walked over to the bed and leaned over Ranma. She reached down and gently grasped Ranma by the shoulders and shook. Ranma wake up; rather, she muttered something in Japanese and rolled over on to her side, turning away from Rogue.

Rogue clicked her tongue softly. She was forced to put one knee on the bed so she could reach over to grab Ranma's shoulders. She wasn't so gentle this time when she tried. Ranma's only reaction was to mutter some more until she trailed off, gently snoring.

From the bathroom she heard the sound of the toilet flush and running water. Slightly annoyed, she yanked on Ranma's shoulder, hoping to jar her awake.

Ranma reacted. Without waking up, she rolled with the momentum of Rogue's pull, rolling onto her back. Still asleep, Ranma reached over with her opposite hand and grabbed Rogue's arm, and with a strength belying her slight frame, yanked Rogue onto the bed, over top of her. Ranma shifted her body so that Rogue landed on the bed beside her, facing the still sleeping martial artists. Ranma's other arm swung over her body, wrapped around Rogue's waist, and pulled the shocked girl's body against hers, pulling her into a very compromising position, muttering the whole time in Japanese.

The bathroom door opened and Logan stepped out. "I was thinking we'd go grab some Korean…" Logan trailed off as his eyes took in the sight of the two shapely ladies snuggling on the bed. "Ah… You want me to come back?"

Blushing furiously, Rogue pushed Ranma away from her as hard as she could. With a thud, the pigtailed martial artist fell to the floor and snapped awake. Rogue leapt off the bed, self-consciously adjusting her shirt where Ranma's groping had untucked it.

"Wha?" Rubbing her face, Ranma looked around blearily, trying to take in her surroundings. She noticed that Rogue was standing off to one side, glaring down at her and that Logan was amused. "Did I fall asleep?"

Logan smirked. "Yeah."

"Oh." Ranma cracked her neck. "Did I do something wrong?"

Logan just shook his head. "Not from where I'm standing."

Ranma cocked her head. "Man… I was having such a good dream, too…"

"And I'm sure I'll have some good dreams tonight." Logan offered her a hand up. "Are you hungry?"

Ranma's stomach took that as cue to growl. Logan laughed. "Come on. Let's go grab some food. Yakiniku sound good to you?"

=-=-=-=-

Over dinner, Ranma had asked (using Logan to interpret) Rogue to experiment with light ki drains of random people. She had been incredibly hesitant, of course, until Ranma explained he needed to test a theory he was developing. She had complied, and by the end of the dinner he felt confident about one aspect concerning Rogue's unique abilities. He'd noticed that when she drained ki from people, her aura would change to reflect the new influx of ki. The ki she absorbed would briefly become the dominate feature of her aura, until the abilities would fade away. After it faded, a small sliver of the ki remained behind, intertwined with her "normal" aura, like background radiation.

Since ki came in many flavors and each person's ki was unique, this process was responsible for what he called her "kaleidoscope" aura. He still had no idea what it meant in terms of controlling her abilities, but being able to understand, even to the smallest degree, how it functioned meant they might be able to reverse engineer the process, or at least refine it to some degree.

Dinner passed quickly as they talked even though they stayed at the all you could eat Korean BBQ joint for over four hours. The proprietor eventually ended up kicking them out, but not before Ranma had polished off a large part of the buffet.

He sighed and patted his belly, male, full, and content. "Well, that's one more place I won't be welcomed too." He shrugged. "It was worth it."

Before Logan could ask what he meant, they heard the dreaded cry of "SWEEETO!"

Happosai had found them.

=-=-=-=-

Ranma he immediately discounted as threat. The boy's ki was so low that he'd barely be capable of throwing a decent punch, let alone keeping up with the Grandmaster of the Anything Goes School of Indiscriminate Grappling.

Still, the boy had surprised him too many times not to tie up lose ends. A quick jump kick sent the sex-changing martial artist flying into a nearby wall, where he collapsed in a heap.

That only left one other. Happosai ducked under the swipe from Logan and pulled out his pipe, and with a quick flick of his wrist, sent the unfortunate mutant sailing into the night air. He knew that wouldn't incapacitate him, but it would give him plenty of time to achieve his objective.

Well, his two objectives, really; which just so happened to be the right and left breast of that delectable foreign girl. She was currently backing away from him, radiating uneasiness.

This was going to be sweet. "Come to papa, baby!"

=-=-=-

Ranma groaned as he struggled to stand up. He was forced to rely on the wall for support, still too weak to really be of much use against Happosai. He heard a shriek from Rogue, and winced as he looked over.

Happosai was certainly enjoying himself. Ranma pitied the girl, having been on the receiving end of a few of the perverted old freak's glomps before. It wasn't pretty. The old man currently had his head nestled between her breasts, and he was doing his best impersonation of a lecherous octopus. Rogue was attempting to fight him off, but Ranma knew full well the futility of that effort.

Ranma watched with sick facination as Rogue, clearly desparate, pulled her gloves off with her teeth and laid her hands on the side of Happosai's head. The look of grim satisfaction was replaced but utter shock as she looked at Ranma and yelled, "It's not working!"

He immediately understood. For whatever reason, she couldn't drain Happosai. Which meant the only way to stop him was hope he got bored or send him towards the horizon. Since it didn't look like Happosai was going to get bored anytime soon, Ranma had to try the later option. Ranma lurched to his feet, determined to do something to stop him. He stumbled towards Happy, and tried to lash out with a ridge hand blow.

Even to his own eyes, it was pretty slow. Happosai didn't try to dodge until the last possible moment. He dodged by moving his head to the side just enough for Ranma's hand to breeze by his ear. Ranma's hand end up lodged where Happosai's head had just been.

Ranma stared dumbly at the sight of his hand between Rogue's cleavage. Happosai didn't help the situation either when he pushed a pressure point on his forearm, causing his hand to contract involuntarily. Even covered by a shirt, Ranma had a very good idea of exactly how her breasts felt, because his hand was currently squeezing one them.

And judging by the look of growing anger in her eyes, he was pretty sure she knew he knew. He gulped.

Rogue lashed out with a knee. His reaction time, already slowed by the lack of ki, was horrible in the face of an angered woman, particularly one with a legitimate cause. He couldn't block the blow to the groin.

He crumpled with a groan.

Happosai cackled and leapt away, content for now. "Ranma m' boy! You do your old master proud!" He blew a kiss and a wink at the fuming Rogue, and leapt off into the night.

Logan managed to stumble back to the group a few seconds later. He saw Ranma writhing on the ground in agony and the look of pure murder on Rogue's face.

"Did I miss anything?"

=-=-=-=-

End chapter 3

There's a point at which writing stops becoming fun and starts to become work. This is still fun for me, but work keeps me from actually writing! Again, questions, comments, reviews welcome. Flames used to cook bacon.

mmm... bacon.

I have not forgotten the other stories. I've got many potential chapters for Idiot's guide, and a couple of potential chapters for the Magical Mushroom Tour (Quest for the Holy Tail), and Speaking for the Dragon just needs a satisfactory ending.

But, as with many things, I got distracted. Ohhh! look! Shiney things!

~muishiki


	4. Chapter 4

Ranma adjusted the bag of ice with a grimace. His mind wasn't really on the sweet, numbing relief that the cold compress provided. Nor was it on Tokyo's night sky or constellations above him. Rather, his attention was focused firmly on Happosai and what had happened earlier that evening. Happosai hadn't been drained when Rogue touched him. Ranma was pretty certain the old man probably knew why, too.

And so, Ranma was currently atop the roof of the Tendo Dojo, mulling recent events in his head while he waited for Happosai to come back. In high school, the roof of the dojo had served as one of the few places of privacy over the years, a temporary sanctuary from the chaos that had been his life. He had often come here to recuperate (like now), to think, and plan. He needed some answers, but before he could get then he needed to know what questions to ask.

Happosai had proved that some form of control was possible. However, Ranma knew from experience that getting Happosai to divulge any information was going to be a Sisyphean task. Force alone wouldn't be enough to convince the pervert to spill the beans; Ranma knew the old man would use the knowledge as leverage against both Ranma and Rogue to satiate his perversions.

Ranma was pretty sure it would take a great deal of cunning, some bribery, and possibly making Happosai an offer he couldn't refuse in order to learn how he prevented Rogue from draining him. That, or Ranma would have to see the technique repeated enough times to figure it out. Which meant he'd have to understand how Rogue drained ki so that he could duplicate it, and then get Happosai grope his female form enough times to deconstruct the counter.

He really didn't want to be groped by the old man, thank you very much. Judging from Rogue's response, she didn't enjoy it either. Sure, it had been reflex and she'd apologized profusely afterwards, but his sense of self preservation made him reluctant to subject her to Happosai more than necessary. Ku Lon would be helpful, but he was pretty sure she'd want something in return he was unwilling to provide. He was also reluctant to get anyone else involved, because experience told him that events would quickly spin out of control.

He sighed. The only thing he could do was prepare for the worst and hope for the best. With his luck, there was no way this would end well. On a positive note, at least he wouldn't be bored anymore.

=-=-=-

She picked at her food, using the half-eaten fried pork cutlet to push the piles of shredded cabbage around the plate.

"You gonna eat that?" Logan asked. He pointed at the leftovers with his chopsticks. She shook her head and pushed the plate in his direction. He plucked the meat off her plate and poured a bit of sauce on the pork before taking a big bite. Logan's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he chewed noisily. "Man, I love this stuff."

Rogue just grunted.

Logan swallowed, took a pull of beer and sighed. "Look, Rogue. Don't worry about it. Really."

She shrugged. "I didn't mean to hit him. Especially not there."

"It was a reflex. He's a tough kid. He'll be fine." Logan said.

"I still feel bad, though."

"Well, maybe you can make it up to him later." Logan took another bite of pork.

"How?" Rogue asked.

"Ask him next time you see him." Logan swallowed the last bite and longingly looked at his empty plate. He put his chopsticks down with a sigh before reaching over and patting Rogue on her shoulder. "Look, kid. You can sit here and mope all night, or we can look at the bright side of things. At least we know that one person's immune."

She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "God, of all the people in the world to be immune to my powers, it just has to be the world's biggest pervert. It's the most depressing thing that happened to me since I got these powers."

"I know what you're thinking, Rogue." Logan gently reached over and squeezed the back of her gloved hand. "But it just proves that there's hope. There are probably a number of people out there immune to your gift. You'll find the right one eventually."

She didn't respond, choosing instead to look away from the table. The waitress came over and asked Logan some questions as she cleared away the remnants of the meal. Rogue didn't say anything as Logan paid the bill. She followed him out of the restaurant, content to let him set the agenda.

Logan carefully threaded his way through the crowds. He decided to change tacks. "Look, when we get back to the hotel, let me call the Professor, see what he thinks. I know he'll be interested in this stuff, anyway. Plus, he'll probably want to talk to Ranma, anyway."

=-=-=-

The moon cast a pale light over the Tendo Dojo, providing just enough light for the shadow to slip in silently over the back wall. Happosai gave his surroundings a cursory examination to make sure he hadn't been followed, and then headed towards the window of his room.

Happosai slid the window open softly, silently dropped his bag of goodies into the room, and stepped inside before closing the window behind him. He dragged the tied wrap into the center of the room and gleefully undid the knot, allowing the contents of the bag to spill out freely. Satin, silks, and laces shimmered in pale moon light.

He quickly began sorting by fabric, size, and garment type. He didn't pause in the slightest as he cleared his throat and addressed the other person in the room.

"Ranma, if you're going to lurk in my room, at least make yourself useful." Happosai pointed to one corner of the pile. "Sort those for me, would you?"

Ranma muttered a curse and materialized out of thin air as he allowed the Umisenken technique to fade. The technique was sealed, but when dealing with Happosai, nothing was off limits. The fact that Happosai had detected him was troubling enough. With the element of surprise gone, Ranma sat down on the tatami mat, irritably watching the old man sort through the pilfered undergarments.

Happosai held up a rather fetching transparent white lace bra with cut outs at arm's length. "Here." He tossed it to Ranma. "Try this one on. It should fit your female form."

Ranma's eyebrow twitched. Before he could say anything, though, Happosai beat him to it.

"If you are going to be in my room, you should be helpful." Happosai pointed at the piles of underwear. "Either try it on, or start sorting."

Ranma flung the bra back at the pervert. Happosai didn't dodge as it hit him in the face. Without missing a beat, he snagged the garment with one hand and draped it over his bald head. With a great deal of reluctance, Ranma started gingerly picking through the pile of underwear.

He was almost afraid to ask. "Are these… fresh?" He held up a white pair with strawberries on them at arms length, disgusted.

"Unfortunately, no." Happosai sighed. "This is just the laundered pile." He started rummaging around through the pile and pulled out a fairly plain bra. "This one's fresh, though. Belongs to that cutie you were with tonight."

Ranma swiped at it but missed as it magically vanished into the folds of Happosai's gi. "Nuh uh. That one's mine." He pulled out another bra and held it up. "You can have this one, though."

Ranma's lips curled in disgust. "No thanks."

Happosai shrugged. "Your loss." The old man fell silent as he became absorbed in the sorting. Ranma realized it would be faster just to let the man finish.

When Happosai finished sorting and started folding, Ranma asked, "what do you do with them all?"

"Do you really want to know?" Happosai looked up from his folding with a raised eyebrow.

Ranma shuddered. "No, not really. I was just making conversation."

"Like you were with the brunette, huh? Does Akane know?"

Ranma snorted. "I'm not trying to date Rogue or anything, ya old pervert."

Happosai sat back on his haunches and rubbed his chin. "Rogue, huh? Sounds like a stripper's name." He slapped his leg to emphasize the point. "Not surprised, though. With that body? Hotcha!"

"Happosai…" Ranma growled.

"Aww… cute. Defending the honor of the little foreign minx. Why do you care?"

Ranma shrugged. "Hero complex, I guess. You know me. I'm always trying to help people."

"Well, at least you have a talent for picking the pretty ones. Can't comment much about her personality, though."

"Like you'd take the time to try and get to know a girl. You were too busy groping her to notice anything but her body." Ranma shrugged. "She's nice enough."

Happosai pulled out his pipe and lit it, taking a slow drag. "She's easy enough on the eyes, true, but a touch violent for my tastes. You seem to like the violent ones, though. No accounting for some people's taste." He shrugged and pulled out the bra he pilfered from Rogue and rubbed it on his cheek. "But she does have that sweet innocence that makes an old pervert like me go crazy."

"That's really disturbing." Ranma's lip curled in disgust.

"Just depends on your viewpoint." The bra vanished again. "Did you want something, m'boy?"

Ranma fidgeted. Seeing that Happosai was growing impatient, he decided it might be better just to lay all his cards on the table and see what happened. Sometimes the old man could be surprising, but he wasn't holding his breath.

With a sigh, he went for broke. "Yeah, I do." Ranma held up his hands. "I want your help."

Happosai's eyebrow arched a bit. "Oh? That's a first. You only come to me as a last resort. Hell, you prefer going to Ku Lon over me. So, what did you do this time? Did you knock Akane up?"

Ranma grimaced. "Nothing like that. I need… some help figuring out a technique."

Happosai didn't say anything as he took a long drag on his pipe. He let the smoke leak slowly out of his nostrils as contemplated the young man before him. "This is about the girl, isn't it?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, it is. Rogue can't control her powers. If she touches anyone with her skin, she drains their ki. She keeps draining as long as she's touching you, and keeps draining until there's nothing left. If she holds on too long, she can kill you."

"Ah." He nodded, and sat smoking silently. "That explains her innocence, then."

"Whaddya mean?"

Happosai snorted. "Pathetic. And to think you're the only worthy heir to my school? Bah." Grumbling, Happosai knocked the dottle out of his pipe into a small handheld ashtray, before both disappeared into the sleeves of his gi. "The girl is still as fresh as a the newly fallen snow. Pure as sunshine, as clean as a new spring day."

Ranma looked at him blankly.

"She's a virgin, you knitwit."

He silently mouthed "oh" and nodded. "Makes sense, ya know, seeing as she can't touch anyone without nearly killin' em." He paused. "So… how come she wasn't able to drain you when she touched you earlier?"

Happosai smiled wickedly. This is what Ranma had been afraid of. "I'll teach you, if you agree to complete your training under me."

Ranma didn't even need to think about his response. "No."

"Too bad." Happosai shrugged, not in the least put out. "You won't figure it out, though. Not even in fifty years. But you agree to become my student, and I'll see that you're getting into her panties in six months. Maybe less."

Ranma growled. "I don't want to 'get into her panties,' ya old fart. I want to help someone. Not everything's about sex."

Happosai shrugged. "It should be."

"So you won't help?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I'm going to enjoy watching you try, though." He held up his hand. "And when you finally give up, my offer still stands. Train under me, and I'll teach you what you need to know. Otherwise, you're on your own."

=-=-=-=-=-

Ranma was in mid-leap when his phone began to vibrate in his subspace pocket. Being a martial artist, he couldn't keep it in a normal pocket or it would get destroyed in the inevitable chaos that found him. He wouldn't normally carry one as the potential risks were too great. However, due to the demands or real life, he'd been forced more and more to carry one around.

The problem was is that having a phone ring in subspace is a tricky proposition, as it required keeping enough of a wormhole open to allow a signal to get through, yet too small for the phone to come out. When it rang, all bets were off. It was kind of like trying to hold back a sneeze while pooping. Strain too hard and there was a risk of blowing out a sphincter. If it rang in a fight, he'd be creamed.

He fumbled the landing as he desperately searched his subspace pockets to pull out the phone. Jabbing a finger on the answer button, he pulled it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

"This is Logan."

Ranma blanked for a second. "Oh, Logan! Hey, nice to hear from you. How'd you get my number?"

"You gave it to Rogue."

Ranma laughed. "Heh. I forgot. What's up?"

"Wanna come over to the hotel?"

Ranma sighed. "I can't man. I'm wiped. I need to sleep. Rogue drained me too many times."

"Yeah, I can understand that. Look, I wanted to ask if I could give your phone number to someone so they can call you."

"Who?"

"My boss. Same guy who's trying to help people like me 'n Rogue. Good guy. Really nice."

"Yeah, sure. Fine. Why do you want to give him my number?"

"Just to chat. Anyway, sorry to bother you. Think we'll see you tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure about tomorrow, as I've got classes all morning. I can probably meet for dinner, though."

"Sounds good. I'll call you in the evening, then. Later."

The line went dead. Before he put the phone up, he made one more call. "Tofu? Yeah, this is Ranma. Look, you think I can swing by tomorrow after classes? I need to pick up some study materials…"

=-=-=-

Logan hung up the phone and stared at it a bit, mulling over Professor Xavier's words a bit. The professor's plan was a bit... unsettling, but Logan had learned to trust him. He seldom made mistakes. If he thought that this was the best choice in the long term, then who was he to argue? Besides, the professor had already put things in motion, so there wasn't much he could do about it but make sure it went smoothly. He pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number the professor had given him.

"Yes. Hello my name is James Howlett. I'm calling on behalf of Charles Francis Xavier…"

=-=-=-

The next day, Rogue was doing some shopping when her communicator went off. She pulled it out of her pocket and flipped it open. It was Logan. They talked briefly and set up a rendezvous in the Cental Hotel near Shinkujuku station, close to were she already was. Logan indicated he'd already called Ranma and confirmed that the pig-tailed martial artist was able to come. It was up to her to go to the restaurant and get a table for three.

Rogue hung up and started wending her way towards the hotel.

=-=-=-=-

Rogue hated that she couldn't speak Japanese. Whatever Logan had said to Ranma must have been surprising, because he started choking on his food. Logan leaped up and swatted Ranma hard on the back, dislodging whatever was stuck in his throat.

When Loagn sat back down, Rogue elbowed him in the ribs and got a sore elbow for her efforts. The man had muscles of steel. "What did you tell him?"

"Just what Professor Xavier told me."

"Will you tell me what he said?"

He grinned and shoved some food into his mouth.

She glared at him, and with exaggerated care began to remove her gloves, one finger at a time.

Logan held up his hands and waved them frantically. "Woah, calm down there, kid!"

Rogue didn't stop. She removed one glove completely and slowly reached towards his face. He leaned back in his chair to avoid making skin contact. She kept advancing slowly, giving him ample time to sweat.

"Alright, alright!" She relented, pulling back, but not putting on her glove.

"Well?"

"I talked to the professor about Ranma, and the whole ki thing. So, the professor fired up Cerebro and did a quick scan."

Rogue looked at Ranma, who was still grimacing and coughing slightly. "Is he…?"

"No, he's human alright." Logan leaned forward. "Funny thing is, so's that old man that grabbed you."

"What's Happosai got to do with it?"

"That's just it. Everything. The professor realized immediately that if one human can be immune to your touch, then others can be, too. The professor wants you to stay here in Tokyo. He thinks that Ranma's right. If you learn to control your ki, you might be able to control your abilities."

She frowned. It made sense, but something wasn't adding up. "So what did you tell Ranma that made him choke?"

"The problem is Ranma can't teach you, or not without getting into a bunch of trouble with Happosai."

Rogue frowned. "Why?"

"Well, Happosai is the founder of the style of Ranma's martial arts school, and until Happosai says he can teach, he isn't allowed to teach you."

"That doesn't explain his reaction." She pointed over towards Ranma, who had recovered by now but was looking quite glum on the opposite side of the table.

"I was getting to that." Logan held up his hands in a warding gesture. "The Professor called Happosai last night to arrange for you to study under Ranma. Happosai agreed, under the condition you both move into the dojo with him."

"WHAT?"

=-=-=-=--

In the end, there really wasn't much she could do. Rogue called the Professor and talked to him. The Professor agreed that Happosai's "proclivities" might make it a challenge, but the opportunity to learn to control her abilities was just too valuable to pass up. Besides, Ranma would be there as well to protect her from the worst of Happosai's depravities.

So it was with a heavy heart that Rogue stepped out of the taxi in front of the Tendo Dojo. Ranma was already there, clearly unhappy about the situation but knowing that complaints wouldn't change anything. Ranma grabbed her bag out of the trunk of the car and introduced her to Kasumi Tendo, now Ono, who was even nicer in person than in the stolen memories she had gotten from Ranma. Surprisingly, Kasumi spoke nearly flawless English. She said it was due to her medical studies with her husband. She led Rogue on a tour of the compoud and tried her best to set her mind at ease, but it was quite difficult considering that Happosai insisted on accompanying the pair the entire time. Ranma, of course, refused to allow Rogue to be anywhere near the old pervert without protection, so he came as well.

Within minutes, Ranma and Happosai were bickering like small children because Ranma blocked an attempt by Happosai to cop a feel at the entrance to the dojo. The sniping escalated, and verbal jabs became physical exchanges.

"You two best behave, or you'll have to cook your own dinner." Kasumi frowned at the pair mid exchange. Both blinked and pulled their respective punches, unwilling to risk Kasumi's ire.

"Are they always like this?" Rogue asked.

Kasumi nodded. "This is your room, dear." Kasumi pushed open a door with the small duck name plate attached to it. She couldn't read the characters, but the room was familiar to her.

"Was this Akane's room?"

Kasumi smiled brightly. "Oh, you know Akane?"

Rogue explained how she knew. Kasumi arched an eyebrow, but didn't comment further. She quickly showed Rogue around the room, and where she could put her clothes. Kasumi shooed Ranma and Happosai out of the room so that Rogue could unpack. A bit later, after she'd settled in a bit, the Kasumi returned and showed Rogue the bath, and how to use the bathing chamber.

Nervous, Rogue carried a change of clothes with her to the changing room and got ready for her bath.

=-=-=-=

Happosai walked swiftly down the hall, bathing supplies cradled under his left arm.

"Where do you think you're going, ya old fart?"

Happosai turned to see Ranma towering over him, his aura buring brightly as he glared down at the old pervet. He had to give the boy credit, though. He hadn't even felt him sneaking up on him.

"I'm going to take a bath." He lifted the bucket and shook it a little, as if hoping to demonstrate his honest intentions.

"I don't think so. Rogue's in there."

"Oh really?" Happosai feigned surprise. "Well, good thing you told me! Wouldn't want to disturb her bath time, after all. Guess I'll just go back to my room, then." Happosai whistled and walked past Ranma.

"That's the way to the bathroom. You're room's the opposite direction."

"Ha! Thanks for pointing that out! Guess I must have forgotten. I am an weak, feeble minded old man, after all."

Ranma's eyebrow twitched. "In that case, perhaps I'd better... escort you to your room. Wouldn't want you to get lost, now, would I?"

Happosai patted him on the leg. "Oh, you're too kind. Don't worry about me."

Ranma swore as he felt the leg Happosai pat go numb and buckle. He lashed out, hoping to catch the old man before he slipped away, but he was a fraction too slow. Cursing, he smiled grimly as he used skills learned in the martial arts tea ceremony to slid along the floor, pursuing the little troll down the hall as he made his way to the bathroom.

=-=-=-

Rogue sighed in contentment as she stepped out of the furo. She barely had time to register the noise before the inner door flew open. Happosai leaped through the door, arms spread wide as he headed for her bosom.

She shrieked and closed her eyes. The expected glomp didn't come, however. She opened her eyes to see a grim faced Ranma holding the pervert by the back of the neck, just twelve inches short of her chest. The old man struggled and squirmed, but he couldn't break free. Ranma marched to the window of the bath room, and sliding it open, proceeded to use a ki blast to propell Happosai into low earth orbit.

He brushed off his hands and turned around, only to come face to face with a very naked, and very shocked, Rogue. He stared, then remembered he wasn't supposed to look and turned around to face the wall. His motion apparently shocked her back into action, because she immediately crossed her arms over her chest and bolted to the changing room.

Ranma sighed. At least, he hadn't been pounded for it. Yet.

=-=-=-

Dinner was a quite affair, with only Kasumi, Rogue, and Ranma eating. Happosai hadn't returned yet, and Tofu was working late due to an emergency. Soun was traveling and wasn't expected back for a week. An awkward silence hung over the table, partly caused by language barriers, but mostly caused by Ranma's furtive glances over at Rogue. She was studiously ignoring him, but blushed on occassion when she caught him looking. That caused him to blush and then hastily apologize. Finally, he wolfed down his food, and thanking Kasumi, retreated to the dojo.

As he practiced his forms, he kept thinking back to the Tendo furo. It had to be cursed, it just had to be. Anytime there was girl that Ranma had relationship to at all, he inevitably ended up seeing naked in the bath. Not that that was a bad thing, but it couldn't be good for his long term health prospects. He increased the pace of his workout, hoping the physical exertion would help clear his mind from the images of Rogue stepping out of the tub.

=-=-=-

Rogue shifted in the bed, trying to get comfortable. The mattress was fine; it was just that she was in an unfamiliar place, and frankly, she was also a little on edge. Happosai hadn't come back yet, and that made her nervous.

With a sigh, she rolled onto her side and tried to relax. It didn't help. She rolled onto her other side and stared at the wall, before giving up and turning to stare at the ceiling. She couldn't relax. She could barely even breath. It felt like she had a huge weight on her chest.

"Would you quit moving around so much? This old man needs his sleep!"

Rogue blinked and looked down. Happosai grumbled irritably and settled back in between her breast.

=-=-=-

"PERVERT!!!!"

Ranma bolted up from his futon and down the hall, kicking the door to Rogue's room open and instantly assessing the situation. Rogue, check. Happosai, check. Groping, check. He reacted on instinct, dashing forward and grabbing the old man by the back of the neck, ripping him off of her chest.

Unfortunately, Happosai had a good grip on her shirt, and ripped and came off along with him. Ranma and Happosai both stared for a second before Ranma remembered where he was and threw the old man out the (thankfully) open window. Rogue blushed and again covered her chest. Ranma closed his eyes and whipped off his shirt to offer to her so she could cover up, holding it up silently.

Unfortunately, this just made the poor girl blush even more, as he wasn't wearing an undershirt. She could see every detail of his muscles. Ranma was in even better shape than Logan, if that could be believed. She snatched the shirt from his hand and turned away, quickly putting it on.

Ranma opened his eyes a fraction. He apologized. Twice in one day. That had to be a record. Shaking his head, he pointed at the floor. "I stay here."

Rogue blushed and stammered. "Ranma, I don't think..."

"I stay here. Guard. You go sleep. I guard." He pointed out the window. Comprehension dawned on her face.

"You sure?"

Ranma nodded.

"Okay." Rogue crawled back into bed. Ranma moved to the corner of the room that allowed him to watch both the door and the window and sat down in a cross legged pose, his back to the wall. Rogue inhaled deeply and smelled an unfamiliar, but comforting scent. She blushed as she remembered who's shirt she was wearing, and that made her even more acutely aware of just how much of herself Ranma had already seen. That made her even more embarrassed, if possible.

Sleep was a long time coming.

=-=-=-=-

End Chapter 4

As always, questions, comments, criticism welcome. I'm always looking to improve my stories/writing.


	5. Chapter 5

Not mine, not mine, not mine. Reviews, comments, criticisms welcome.

=-=-=-=-

Chapter 5

"Welcome home, Father!" Kasumi greeted Soun Tendo at the front door with a bow as he slipped out of his shoes. Kasumi immediately launched into the new developments around the house, but faltered a bit as his expression became increasingly dark with an explanation of the new guest staying at the dojo.

=-=-=-

Rogue glanced nervously over at Ranma, who himself was glancing nervously at Soun Tendo. The patriarch was sitting at the head of the table, eyes flicking back and forth between the pigtailed martial artist and Rogue, a lit cigarette dangling forgotten from his fingers.

Soun's first reaction was not what she had expected. Rouge thought that Soun would have been overjoyed at the prospect of paying students coming to the Dojo. Rather, he sat at the head of the table, chain smoking cigarettes and interrogating Ranma at length. Or at least, Rogue assumed it was an interrogation. She really couldn't follow the conversation because she could only catch snippets; after all, she'd only been learning Japanese for a week now. But she had absorbed enough of Ranma's memories about the Tendo patriarch that she could tell that his gruff tone and body language signaled that all wasn't kosher between the two men at this moment.

Happosai sat at the head of the table on a stack of cushions. He didn't say anything. He simply watched the interaction, taking the occasional drag on his pipe and winking at Rogue.

She probably guessed what the problem was. Given Ranma's history with women and what she had culled from the memories of Soun from the time's she'd drained Ranma, the Tendo patriarch was probably worried about Rogue "stealing" Ranma from Akane.

Yeah right. Whatever.

The conversation continued for a bit. Kasumi brought tea and disappeared. Ranma seemed to be losing the discussion for a bit.

Then Happosai spoke up. She didn't know what he said, but it was short. It seemed to shock Soun, but he nodded slowly and turned to Ranma. He took an absent minded drag on his latest cigarette. He grunted, looked over at Rogue and narrowed his eyes. He muttered something at Ranma, who visibly sagged with relief. Happosai got up from his cushions and walked away. The grilling was over.

Rogue couldn't take it. "What did he say?" She whispered in Ranma's direction, in English.

"You can stay. Happosai told him to teach you."

"Really?"

Ranma nodded. He bowed low to Soun, who grunted and reached into his breast pocket for another cigarette. He pulled out the box but saw that it was empty, so he let out a sigh and waved the pair away.

Ranma took the hint and got up, heading towards the dojo. With nothing better to do, Rogue followed. She didn't want to do any more training, but if she let Ranma out of her sight, Happosai would be sure to show up.

The first week at the dojo had been interesting, to say the least. Happosai had done his best to be a perverted nuisance. Unfortunately, the old letch succeeded more than he failed, even with Ranma's intervention. The problem was, she just wasn't skilled enough to prevent him from taking advantage of her, and Ranma could only prevent those occasions he was aware of. Even then it was a fifty-fifty chance, even though Ranma was good, Happosai was still better.

Ranma had forced her to spend a lot of time in the dojo. His reasons were because it was to defend due to the wide open spaces and limited entries. With a sigh, she went into the dojo wondering if she could convince the Professor that this had been a bad idea after all. .

=-=-=-

Ranma was soaking in the tub later that evening when Soun came in through the bathroom door to take his own bath. He didn't say anything as he sat down on the bathing stool and filled a bucket with cold water. The older man poured the cold water over his head and began to lather up. Quietly, Ranma slid to the edge of the tub and prepared to leave.

Soun didn't turn to look at him. He simply instructed Ranma to stay put, but otherwise ignored him.

Ranma gulped and settled back into the tub. Seems Soun wasn't quite done yet, after all. The older man's scrubbing took a bit, as he still had quite long hair. He didn't take his time, but he didn't rush, either, methodically scrubbing his body after shampooing his hair. Even though he was no longer all that young or active in the martial arts, Ranma could help but notice that his back was rather muscular. It rippled every time Soun scrubbed something, the knots of muscles apparent under the skin.

He might not be all that active, but he kept in shape. And he still knew how to throw a punch.

Soun finished washing and rinsed off before climbing in the tub. Silence stretched as Ranma looked down at the water.

"Kasumi told me about her... condition."

Ranma nodded.

"I'm not happy about this at all."

"Why not?" Ranma looked up, genuinely puzzled. "Happosai wants me to teach her, and its about time the dojo had a student again."

"I'm only agreeing to it because of Master Happosai." Soun sighed. "Do you really want to know why I'm upset?"

Ranma nodded.

"Ranma, I thought your women problems were over. Now I find yet another young and incredibly attractive woman hanging around you, while my baby girl is nowhere in sight. Given your luck with ladies, it will only be a matter of time before the earlier craziness returns. Even if that girl herself can't get her claws into you, Xian Pu might use it as an excuse to start her antics again."

Ranma opened his mouth to protest, but Soun cut him off.

"I know it wasn't your fault initially, Ranma, but it was your fault it continued."

Ranma shrugged. He'd had this argument before. He also knew how to end it, too.

"There wasn't a way to end it without staining someone's honor. If you want to blame someone, blame my dad. I did my best."

And on cue, Soun changed topics, not wanting to go into the ugly ramifications of family honor.

"Will you continue staying at your apartment, then?"

Ranma paused. "I'd like to, but with Happosai..."

Soun grimaced and nodded. "I suppose you'll move back into your old room, then."

Ranma agreed. While it wasn't the best solution, he didn't mind the longer commute. Plus, he'd be saving a load of money, which was always a plus for him.

"What about Akane? Is she aware of this... arrangement? Is she okay with it?"

Ranma nodded quickly. Shit. He'd forgotten to tell Akane. First thing he needed to do when he got out of the tub was come up with a cover story with her.

Soun softened a bit. "How's she doing, anyway?"

Akane always told him that he couldn't lie to save his life. So, the rather than trying to make up something that would get him in trouble down the road, she'd always advised him to stick as close to the truth as possible. That way, you'd be less likely to mess up and blow the whole thing. With that in mind, Ranma looked Soun in the eyes and said, "She's really, really happy. She'd get married tomorrow if she was able, but I keep telling her she should wait until after graduation, at least."

Soun's eyes lit up. "Good, good. That's a good plan. Glad to hear it. Very sensible, after all..." After that, the ice was broken a bit. They chatted about Akane's studies and how she was enjoying school. Ranma was completely honest. He had no reason to lie, after all. Akane loved school, loved acting, and loved her partner.

He just never told Soun her partner wasn't him.

=-=-=-=

"Akane?"

"Wha... Ranma? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Yeah, 3:30 a.m. I need to talk with you." He explained the situation, in detail. This was the first chance he had to slip away undetected to make the phone call. Akane quickly realized how important it was woke up fairly quickly as he laid out, in painful detail, just what was going on at the dojo. She mostly listened, asking a few questions every now and then. The line grew silent. Ranma nervously looked around from his perch on top of the Tendo Dojo roof, hoping that Happosai didn't discover he was out of the room and use that as a chance to molest Rogue.

At the end of his explanation, Akane laughed. Indignant, he demanded to know what was so funny, using the quietest voice possible that could convey his anger.

"Nothing, you big dummy. I just don't know how you keep getting into these situations. Seriously, it's like somebody up there has it out for you."

"Well yuck it up, tomboy. I need your help, or you want me to go ahead and tell your dad we ain't uniting the schools any time soon?"

"Yeah... Okay. Listen, this is what we'll do..."

Ranma's sense of unease increased dramatically as Akane laid out her plan. "I don't know 'bout this, tomboy."

"Ranma, trust me."

"Last time you said that, you pulled out that strap on. I still haven't forgiven you for that."

"I'm not sorry about it, though. You enjoyed it."

Ranma grunted. "I'll never admit it."

Akane sighed on the other end of the phone. "Do you think this will work?"

"No. But we'll do our best, right? We can't keep it a secret for ever. The longer we wait, the harder it will be. Maybe it's time to tell them."

"You're right, of course. I just... anyway, I'm going back to sleep, alright? Give my best to Kasumi and Daddy. Lots of love."

"Love back at you, tomboy. I will. Say hi to your girlfriend for me."

"Rezu's awake and shooting me nasty looks right now. You want to talk to her?"

He laughed. "No, I'm good. Night, Akane."

"Night Ranma."

He hung up, not in the least bit relieved. Sure, it was easy for Akane to avoid the reckoning, but he was the one actually here at the Dojo, trying to keep the deception up with her father. His pensive mood wasn't relieved in the slightest as he slipped back into Akane's old room, no _Rogue's_ room now, to stand silent vigil over the sleeping brunette. He sat cross legged on the floor and began running through as many ki exercise as he could, stopping every once in a while to consult the notes he'd picked up from Doctor Tofu earlier.

He settled in for yet another long night.

=-=-=-

The next morning, the family sat around the dining room table, idly chatting as they picked at the food Kasumi had served. Soun read a newspaper at the corner of the table, effectively shutting out the crowd and the noise. Dr. Tofu, Kasumi's husband, sat next to her and smiled appreciatively at her as she served. Ranma was already eating, nodding his thanks, too tired from another all night vigil to really be social.

Happosai sat beaming at the other end of the table, watched warily by both Ranma and Rogue, but he ignored them both in order to play with the newest pair of underwear he'd acquired from Rogue's wardrobe somehow last night. She shuddered. At least it wasn't the pair she'd been wearing.

And that just left Rogue the odd man out. She couldn't effectively converse with them, as Ranma's English was limited. Kasumi's English was great, but she couldn't continue to rely on the woman to act as her interpreter. She basically refused to talk to Happosai, and while Tofu never really hung around long enough to struggle through a conversation. Rogue's Japanese was still pretty horrible, and even though she tried to follow conversations, she could only to pick out a few words.

On top of that, she was incredibly sore. It was a struggle to do more than lift her chopsticks to her mouth, and the infernal devices seemed to be conspiring to keep her from eating since she could barely close her hands into a fist. She'd just undergone her first "real" training session with Ranma as her martial arts instructor.

He made the Danger Room seem like a day spa.

At first she had really not been happy about the marital arts classes. As little as she wanted to, Rogue was forced to agree with Ranma's reasoning. She couldn't protect herself from the letch, and until she could, she'd be a target. Plus, considering how much time they'd be forced to spend together anyway, that time might as well be productive. Professor Xavier also wanted her to keep her combat edge, and hand-to-hand training would help maintain the skills she had learned fighting with the X-men. Since Happosai wanted Ranma to start training her in his family style, they began immediately after her introduction to Soun.

It was brutal. Ranma was patient and a good teacher, but he allowed her no slack. He could tell she had the rudiments of combat training, and he hit hard. She knew he was still pulling his punches, but no matter how in shape she might have been, she wasn't prepared for the intensity of the lessons under him, with Soun and Happosai's supervision.

Tofu got up to head to the office. She couldn't follow the conversation at all, which was almost as frustrating as her morning class with Ranma. Her language ability would improve -slowly, to be sure - but after a week of living with this family, she still could express her only her basic needs - water, food, bathroom, and pervert groping me.

Unfortunately, the last phrase had become far more useful and frequently used than she wished. Happosai continued to be a nuisance, taking every opportunity to exploit her vulnerability that he could. Rogue quickly realized that until she could defend herself against Happosai's predations, she'd basically have no privacy. The moment she was alone - be it in the bath, the toilet, or asleep - Happosai somehow managed to find out and take advantage of it.

Neither of them anticipated what a full time job it would be. Ranma had to accompany her everywhere to make sure it didn't happen, or at least, mitigate the damage when he could. He had basically taken to sleeping in the same room as her - on the floor, of course- so he could react faster to the old letch. He sat outside the bathroom as she bathed to prevent incursions.

Hell, he even walked her to the toilet. She'd put her foot down when he tried to accompany her inside. She'd changed her mind though, the first time she sat down on the commode and felt Happosai caressing her bottom from inside the bowl.

She hadn't been able to sleep for almost two nights after that.

So while Ranma didn't actually stand in the bathroom while she was doing her business, she did have him search the room beforehand and stand outside while using the facilities.

The lack of privacy was slowly driving her insane. But she needed an out. The Xavier institute provided her a stipend for spending money in addition to sending a check to the dojo to pay for her lodging and food. It was supposed to be for incidentals and other expenses. But there were other ways she could spend the money and give her some private time as well.

"Kasumi?"

The older woman looked up from where she was serving a bowl of rice to Soun.

"Yes?"

"Do you know where I could take some Japanese classes?"

Kasumi cocked her head, and then asked some the rest of the family. It was clear that the idea interested the rest of the table, and after breakfast Kasumi left the table to go make some phone calls. Eventually, Kasumi found a private tutor at from the same university Akane attended. She was eager to start right away, both to get away from Happosai and, as nice as a guy as Ranma was, some alone time for herself.

However, going to language classes at Akane's university meant she couldn't escape Ranma completely. He was obliged to come along, playing the role of the dutiful finance and visiting with Akane while Rogue was in class.

Time passed quickly as she fell into a routine at the dojo. The mornings were filled with martial arts classes supervised by Soun and taught by Ranma. While he hadn't been happy to have her there, Soun still took teaching seriously. After classes, Ranma would often walk Rogue to where she'd be taking lessons and then depart for his own classes at his university.

She eventually got used to the grueling schedule, but she had expected Ranma to taper off as she got in shape. In retrospect, she should have known better. Ranma was serious about few things, and the Art was one of them. He forced her to be as serious about it as he was, but it was a struggle. Ranma had some weird ideas about what was considered light training. He woke her up every morning at 5:30 and put her through several hours of rigorous training, including some light sparring. She wasn't exactly a slouch, but she couldn't hold a candle to Ranma.

There had been several times, particularly in the first couple of months, when she really wanted to quit and go home. But she stuck with it, mostly because she started to notice the subtle changes in her own body that made her reevaluate her initial reluctance. She felt and looked stronger, and managed to lose that last five pounds that had always been bothering her. While Rogue approved of the changes that were happening to her body, she also struggled to maintain some sense of normalcy in her life. The fact that she was a mutant with the powers to steal memories wasn't enough; Ranma wanted her to train every day until she could hardly move.

Increasingly, her language classes gave her a chance to be a "normal" girl for once. She'd been introduced to Ranma's ex the day she started classes at the same university. Akane became her lifeline, because she understood what it was like to be around Ranma, caught up in the chaos that always surrounded him. Rogue ended up hanging out with Akane and her girlfriend quite a bit, if only to avoid going back to the dojo. She liked Akane - the girl was spunky, smart, and wasn't afraid to put Ranma in his place when he stepped out of line.

Rogue felt a kinship to the short haired girl, and they got along well. Rezu, her girlfriend, had been a bit wary at first, as most things dealing with Ranma tended to end up taking a turn for the crazy. But she eventually thawed when she revealed her abilities to the couple, relaxed by the fact that she wasn't gunning for Akane.

Akane proved to be a great source of entertainment for Rogue. Akane and her girlfriend even took her under their collective wings, taking her out shopping, drinking, and to karaoke bars and clubs when she needed a break from the dojo. And, the other thing that was great is that Akane knew martial arts. She wasn't as good as Ranma, but she could help Rogue understand concepts that Ranma couldn't explain. It also gave them common ground to talk about besides Japanese and movies. The other topic they drifted to frequently was boys.

Even though Akane was a dyed-in-the-wool lesbian at this point, that didn't mean she didn't have some rather choice bits to share about her former fiancé. Even though Akane would never admit it, she was a huge pervert and took a special delight in sharing tales of her sexcapades with Ranma while when the boy wasn't there. Rogue knew she wasn't exaggerating, either, because she only had to look at Ranma's blushes when she asked him about it or drain his memories to confirm it.

No matter how much fun she had with the Tendo girl, eventually she always had to come home for the evening lessons. If the morning lessons with Ranma were hard, the evening classes with Happosai were even worse. Skipping them weren't an option, because Happosai always seemed to be able to find her, no matter where she went. If he hunted her down, he subjected her to degradations that left her feeling dirty for hours. It was better to be home for dinner and then head out to the dojo. The evening classes were focused mostly on meditation and manipulating ki. Rogue couldn't do it at all, of course, which is why it sucked so much. It was frustrating and humiliating to be helpless, trapped in the dojo with the old letcher as Ranma did his best to minimize the amount of perversion she was subjected to.

At least Ranma seemed to get a good workout from it. It usually devolved into a full out brawl between Ranma and the old goat within fifteen minutes. She inevitably ended up caught between the two, and left the dojo thoroughly rumpled, groped, and disgruntled. She stopped wearing underwear at all during these sessions, as she knew she'd never get it back. Instead, she simply wore a binding around her chest to minimize the discomfort.

But, that still meant she was subjected to repeat groping from the old letch. After her bath, she crawled up to her room, too exhausted to do much more than fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

=-=-=-=-

Rogue flew through the air, only managing to flip just in time to land flat on her back in the koi pound. She growled and leapt out of the water, ignoring the way her wet night clothes currently clung to her body.

Six damn months! Every single day for the last six god damned months, that infuriating punk managed to send her into the pond no matter how hard she tried to prevent it. She slid forward, intent on wiping that smirk off his face. She'd learned to wear sensible clothing to bed after the first couple of times, but it didn't mean she liked it. Waking up wet and soaking, no matter what time of the year, wasn't pleasant. Tokyo winters could be cold.

Happosai waggled his eyebrows suggestively as she charged at him, intent on murder. Of course she failed to catch him; she failed to even touch him. But that wasn't the point. He led her deeper into the house until they arrived at the dojo, where Ranma was waiting. He moved to engage, and sparring started.

Her abilities were a curse, but the old saw that every cloud has a silver lining rang true in this case. Six months of draining Ranma, both to learn Japanese and defend herself against Happosai, had left something behind.

It had left the basics of the Anything Goes Style.

Happosai had been the first to notice it. His usual methods of groping countered unconsciously, or the way she held her chopsticks, optimized for both attack and defense. Over time, the repeated draining had left an imprint of the style on her psyche, augmenting the training in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat she'd received from the X-men.

It was weird how time had changed her perception about the training. She had hated it when she started. Then, after a couple of months, she didn't mind it anymore. Now, though, she rather enjoyed it. Okay, that was an understatement. She loved it. She could let lose, take of her gloves (both figuratively and literally) and really enjoy the act of physically touching someone. She found that she genuinely loved marital arts. Ranma said that it was probably because her ki was becoming aligned very closely to his, since she stole more of his than anyone else's. Happosai had another theory, but it was too lecherous to entertain. Soun, on the other hand, said that it was because she was gifted, and had found an outlet for her gift.

She didn't know, or care. All she cared about was that she'd had more fun here than she ever dreamed possible. It wasn't fun getting thrown in the pond every morning, but she had a caring mother figure in Kasumi, an intelligent doctor intent on helping her in Tofu, a kind father figure in Soun, and a good friend in Akane. Her Japanese was getting better every day, and while she was still learning, it no longer was the barrier it had been to by in the country.

And in Ranma...

If she could just forget Happosai, this place would have been perfect. It was becoming a home in the way the Xavier Institute never had. No missions, just school, sparring, and working on her abilities. If Logan has said six month's ago she'd love hand-to-hand combat, she would have laughed in his face. But now, she could see the thrill in it, loved it for how it focused her mind and body on the act of committing to a strike, lost in the rhythm of attacking, countering, and defending.

The sparring was mostly for her benefit, but Ranma got practice teaching Anything Goes, coaching and correcting. It also gave him opportunities to practice the various ki techniques he was trying to develop to either block her ability or quickly replace the ki lost through other means. Nothing had worked so far, but Ranma seemed satisfied with his progress. Or, at least, he had until recently. He had confided that he recently had been stumped on her problem. He had thought that, like with the ki draining techniques used by Hinomiya, she needed some kind of focus and it could be stopped once found.

It hadn't been the case, though. She was the focus - there was nothing to block except her touch. Tofu had been helping considerably by contributing research and suggestions on possible counters, but unfortunately, everything they had tried so far turned out to be a dead end. After each attempt, they'd try another theory and experiment, but she could tell that Ranma was getting frustrated. It was usually so easy for him to figure stuff like this out. However, he kept at it, trying approach after approach, even if each one was doomed to fail.

Happosai watched their efforts with amused superiority. He hadn't once bothered to explain how he was able to block the effects of her touch. His immunity meant she couldn't pull the answer out of him, either.

But she was able to take the memories of everyone else. Even if Ranma hadn't been able to figure out Happosai's technique yet, she'd been working on ki and meditation exercises every night for the past six months.

On top of her practice, she'd absorbed a considerable bit of Ranma's knowledge on the subject over that same time, meaning she had the theoretical knowledge. Now she just needed to practice. It was getting easier. She couldn't manifest her ki yet, but she was getting better about sensing how it flowed from her target's body into hers, and how that influx of ki would shift her center. She now knew enough to absorb ki without it affecting her personality, a problem she'd had in the past when she'd drained a target.

She was getting better. She could clearly feel the improvement. Her condition still prevented her from touching anyone, but she had hope that one day, with continued practice, she'd get it. What she wouldn't admit to anyone else, though, is that she enjoyed the memories that came with the ki she stole the most. It was kind of like being a voyeur - the images were often fleeting, but they had no filter, captured raw and in a vulnerable state. They were more impressions than anything else. More than anyone else's memories, she cherished Ranma's. He was reluctant to talk about his past, but she was able to reconstruct his life history, touch by touch, until she felt like she knew him better than anyone else.

Hell, she probably knew him better than he knew himself.

And that scared her and exhilarated her at the same time. Because she found that the more she learned about Ranma Saotome, the more she wanted to know. He was cocky, egotistical, sex changing martial arts god, who just happened to be one of the nicests, sweetest, closet romantics she'd ever met.

Akane had teased her about it when she confessed, and Rezu had just smirked and said "I told you so!"

But they were both right. Rogue was afraid she was falling in love.

=-=-=-

Ranma wiped his forehead on his gi, feeling more tired than he let on. These daily sessions weren't great for his technique, but they were a gold mine when it came to working on ki manipulation techniques. Plus, he had to admit, Rogue had gotten pretty damn good. Not as good as he was, but in six months she was already not far below where Akane had been when he had met her. Give her five or six years, and she'd be as good as he was now.

He'd just be that much better, of course.

He smirked and called an end to the sparring match. "Good workout!"

Rogue collapsed and grunted from where she had collapsed on the floor, exhausted from the sparring session. He sat down beside her in a comfortable cross-legged position. He cajoled her to sit up and start moving through some cool down stretches. She grumbled and complained, but he could tell she was just doing it out of habit, not because she didn't want to. After stretching, she got up to get ready for school. He was amazed at how quickly she was learning Japanese, but then again, she was also a pretty bright girl. She was smarter than he was, certainly.

They flipped a coin for first bath. This was really a formality, done merely to keep up appearances for Soun. Six months of living together in the dojo had taught Ranma that it didn't really matter who won because they both knew that as soon as Rogue started undressing to take her bath, Happosai would inevitably find some way to try and worm his way into the room. Ranma'd be forced to intervene, and he'd end up in the bathroom with a naked Rogue anyway.

It would have saved a lot of time for them just to bath together, as that was really the only way to keep Happosai out. But, they couldn't risk offending Soun, who was alternately amused and angry that he seemed to find them naked together on a nearly daily basis. He knew it was Happosai's fault as well, but it didn't mean he liked seeing his daughter's fiancé naked with another woman in his bathtub. Soun's initial anger towards Rogue had faded, and he really enjoyed teaching her his art. Through her Mr. Tendo rediscovered his love of teaching, and had announced, with much fanfare, that he'd be re-opening the dojo to students after she finished her training.

Rogue won the toss, as usual. He knew she knew that he rigged the toss so she'd go first. It was less awkward for him to stand guard while she scrubbed than the other way around. Besides, they could preserve a shred more modesty that way.

But, he had to admit to himself, he didn't he didn't minded looking. Akane had been hot. Rogue was... to say she was attractive just didn't do it justice. He'd seen a lot of beautiful women in his life. Hell, he turned into one with a splash of cold water. And in his opinion, Rogue had a body that could give his female half a run for the money. But it was her personality that did it for him. Plus, she didn't seem to mind him looking. She definitely looked at his male half, if her lingering gazes during bath time were any indication.

Soun had been right. Ranma plus any attractive female equaled trouble. He sighed. How did he get into these messes?

Thank god he couldn't touch her, or there would be real problems. He wasn't sure he'd be able to control himself anymore. When he was a teenager, he didn't know what sex was, and so had been able to resist a temptation because he just didn't know what he was missing. Akane had introduced him into the world of physical intimacy, and now that he knew he was missing, it was a bit more of a challenge. Ranma was dense, but even he could feel the sexual tension between them.

He came into the changing room with her and turned to face the door, the sibilant whisperings of her undressing behind his back tempting him to look over his shoulder. Ranma wrapped himself in the soul of ice and resolutely kept his eyes front until he heard the inner door to the bath slide open and shut behind him.

He sagged with relief and pulled out a little stool to sit on while he waited.

He didn't have to wait long. Happosai opened the outer door to the bathroom bathing supplies in hand and a towel slung over his shoulder.

"Can't you give it a rest for one day, old man?" Ranma sighed and stood up.

"Hmm? What?" Happosai turned around. "Oh, Ranma! I thought the bath was empty!"

"I didn't fall for it the first hundred times. What makes you think I'd fall for it now?"

Happosai shrugged. "Always worth a try, I suppose."

Ranma cracked his knuckles. "We can do this the hard way, or the easy way."

=-=-=-=-

Rogue was pouring the last bucket of water over her head when the commotion started outside. Quickly wrapping her bathing towel around her body, she stepped into the tub and sank down right as Ranma barreled through the door, the old pervert locked in a headlock. They both crashed to the ground on the slippery tile, but Ranma managed to maneuver himself so the old pervert took the brunt of the fall.

Rogue cleared her throat. Happosai looked up from where he was pinned beneath Ranma, eyes full of hope. That hope was dashed a moment later when he saw she was already in the tub, with a towel wrapped around her body. She merely arched an eyebrow at him and pointed out the open door.

Happosai sighed. "Could I just..."

"NO!" came the resounding chorus from both Ranma and Rogue.

"Not even a little?"

"Happosai..."

Defeated, the old man sighed and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door slowly behind him. Ranma watched him go with some satisfaction. He was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of Rogue in the bath tub.

"Will you leave so I can finish?"

"What? Oh! Right!" Ranma blushed and opened the door, closing it quickly behind him as he left.

Rogue smiled. She could tell by the way he left that Ranma'd been disappointed, too. She slipped deeper in the tub, allowing her mind to wander as she thought about a certain pigtailed martial artist. Her hands soon joined her mind in their wandering.

=-=-=-

Ranma looked up as Rogue exited the bath, her face flushed and a slight grin on her face.

"Good bath?"

She smiled at him. "Great." She brushed by him with a wink and dropped her towel on the way over to the bench where her clothes we laid out. She stood there in all her glory, ignoring his presence as she started to dress. He stared. She turned to look at him as she put on her underwear and arched an eyebrow. "It's rude to stare, you know."

He flushed and turned around. Her giggles followed him into the bathroom. After his bath, he sought out Happosai in his room. The old man was ironing his collection again. Ranma didn't bother knocking. He sat down next to the old man and watched in disgust as he saw all the underwear spread out before him. His eyebrows narrowed a bit, and he reached into the pile and pulled out a pair of Rogue's underpants.

"I thought you said you'd stop stealing from her."

"I never agreed to that!" The old man swiped at it, but Ranma pulled them back.

Happosai glared at him for a bit, and then turned back to his pile with a harrumph.

Ranma dangled the panties just out of reach. "I'll give 'em back if you tell me."

Happosai didn't look up. "You can keep 'em. I've got others." To demonstrate, he rooted around in the pile and pulled out a different pair. Happosai frowned. "Actually, these are yours. Take 'em."

He flung the pair at Ranma's face. Ranma snatched them out of the air and threw them back at him, but Happosai just shrugged when they hit him. "Don't say I didn't offer."

"Come on, ya old fart! Just some clue!" Ranma practically growled. "I feel like I'm close to figuring it out."

Happosai snorted. "About the only thing you're close to is getting into her panties."

"Happosai!"

"Ranma!"

Ranma threw up his hands in frustration. "Come on. Just give me a hint, already."

Happosai shook his head melodramatically. "If you need a clue that the girl's hot for you, you're beyond helping."

Ranma visibly retrained himself to avoid lashing out at the pervert. "It ain't like that, you old goat. I want to help her."

"You want to hump her, don't deny it. Anyway, my answer's still no." He paused in his ironing. "Of course, if you would just agree to be my student, I'll teach you in no time."

Ranma growled, and stuffed the panties into his pocket. "Fuck you, old man. I'll figure it out on my own."

"Really?" Happosai just chuckled. "How are those ki exercises working for you? Still practicing that 'Soul of Ice' technique? Feel like you're making any progress?"

Ranma didn't say anything, knowing that he wouldn't get the better of this exchange.

Happosai snorted. "Thought so." He changed tactics. "Do you like having a student?"

Ranma was a little taken aback in the change of topic. He wasn't sure which angle Happosai was pursuing, so he answered cautiously. "Yeah, I guess."

"I can see that. She's a better student than Akane, certainly."

Ranma shrugged. "I guess."

"You guess?" Happosai sat back on his haunches as he raised his voice. "You guess? You idiot. Most masters would kill to have a student like her." He raised a gnarled finger and pointed it in Ranma's direction. "Don't fuck this up, boy."

"What do you mean?"

Happosai turned back to his pile of stolen underwear. "You'll figure it out, eventually. Good luck. You're gonna need it!"

Happosai proceeded to ignore him until he grew frustrated and left.

=-=-=-=-

Ranma wandered that afternoon, lost in thought. Partly, he was mulling over Happosai's last couple of statements before he left, and at the same time trying to think of news ways to approach the problem. He was coming up short of ideas on how to duplicate Happosai's technique. He didn't even know what the technique was. He couldn't feel anything from the old man when he touched Rogue. It was infuriating. Trying to construct a technique from scratch was much harder than he thought, particularly when the master of that technique was actively sabotaging his attempts.

His wandering took him to a park, and not really paying attention to his surroundings, he sat down with a sigh on a park bench. He leaned back and relaxed, shoving his hands into his pockets as he stretched his legs out and crossed his legs at the ankles. He was tired, but his mind was racing as he tried to tackle the problem of Rogue's vampirism once again.

To give his hands something to do he started trying some ki exercises with his hand. His mind was occupied with thoughts of Rogue's condition, because it was safer to thing about that than to think about the girl. Together with Dr. Tofu, he'd been trying exercise after exercise to improve his control and understanding of ki, but he still hadn't been able to solve Rogue's problem. However, it wasn't all bad, as he could now split his ki into multiple independent streams, which was the whole point of this exercise. He began to make a small ball of ki hover over each finger in his right hand.

It was mentally and physically exhausting work, compounded by the constant draining he suffered during his sparring matches. He felt like he was constantly sleep deprived and battling an iron deficiency. But he persevered, if mainly to avoid having to cave to Happosai. Ranma was so wrapped up in his exercises that he missed the sound of a delivery bicycle bell rapidly crossing the park. It only registered on his conscious when it was already too late to do anything about it.

He dove to the side and narrowly missed being flattened by the front tire of Xian Pu's bike. He stood up slowly, brushing the knees of his pants off as he cautiously took in his surrounds. Well, at least she was alone, as far as he could tell.

"Aiya! Airen!" Suddenly his arms were full of buxom bouncy Chinese delivery girl. He delicately looked for a place to put his hands that wouldn't be seen as leading her on, and with a firm push, extricated himself from her glomp.

"I'm not your airen, Xian Pu."

She pouted, batting her eyelashes at him.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Where's Mousse? I don't see him around."

"He chained to bed."

Ranma just grunted. "So he finally convinced you to forget about me?"

Xian Pu giggled. "No, silly! Xian Pu get him all excited, make him get naked, promise him he could have my body, then chain him to bed with his own weapons once he take off glasses. Stupid duck boy not worthy of this body." She posed suggestively, her generous proportions straining the silk of the tight cheongsam she wore.

Ranma's brain caught up with her statement. "Wait. You chained him to a bed?

Xian Pu nodded vigorously.

"Naked?"

Again, she nodded, clearly pleased with herself.

"When was this?"

She cocked her head. "Oh, thirty minutes ago?"

Ranma swore under his breath. He didn't think; he reacted. He bent backwards and swiveled his hips, whipping his head out of the way of a vicious sword swing that would have decapitated him had he been a fraction of a second slower. He continued to dodge, relying on his senses to guide him through the flurry of thrown weapons that were flung his way by the master of the hidden weapons technique. He dodged a fraction too late because he felt a slight tug on his pants pocket, heard the sound of ripping cloth, and then felt a breeze on his hip.

He looked down at where he had been standing to see a flutter of cloth pinned to the concrete by a rather nasty looking trident. Besides just the pocket of his pants, the pair of underwear he'd snagged from Happosai stood out prominently. He heard a pair of feet landing on the bench behind him. He didn't have to look to know it was Mousse, the owner of the trident that had tried to impale him.

Mousse adjusted his glasses with a growl, muttering Ranma's name and grinding his teeth at the same time, clearly assuming the worst between him and Xian Pu. Ranma backed away slowly, holding up his hands. "Heya, Mousse. Good to see ya. Um..." he gestured between him and Xian Pu. "It ain't like you think, Mousse. I didn't know she'd be here. Honest."

Xian Pu frowned and ripped the panties free of the trident and looked at the remains. "These no Akane's."

Mousse pulled out another sword. Xian Pu pulled out a pair of maces. Ranma pulled out his best technique - the Saotome secret technique founded on the notions of motion, contemplation, and opposition.

He ran like crazy.

=-=-=-=

"SHIIIIIIIIIT!" Ranma dodged a few of the throwing stars hurtled in his direction, confident they wouldn't hurt anyone. The others he plucked out of mid-air, trying to minimize the damage the two rampaging Amazons behind him were causing. He kept up on the roofs of the buildings, making himself a more visible target to the pursuing Amazons. Mousse chased after him intending to inflict grievous bodily harm to his person; Xian Pu chased him to find out who the underwear she'd picked up belonged to, and if it wasn't Akane, why wasn't it her?

This only served to infuriate Mousse more, and the projectile weapons came faster with each question. Ranma did his best to make sure most of them weren't going to harm some innocent bystander, but when chased by Amazons, there was only so much he could do.

In either case, it was bad news for property owners around. He wasn't afraid of either of them, but he also didn't want to have to fight them if he could avoid it. He looked around frantically, taking stock of where he was. He was close to Akane's university. He spied her distinctive hair in the crowd walking with Rogue as she wrapped up for the day.

Breathing a huge sigh of relief, he turned on the speed and ran behind her, putting her body between his and the charging Amazons. His sudden appearance startled her, and both she and Rogue blinked a couple times before it really registered.

"Ranma?"

"AMAZONS!" He pointed over her shoulder. Akane dropped her books and whirled just in time to see that she had stepped into the path of a thrown Chinese mace. It was heading right for her, but before it impacted, Mousse pulled the weapon aside with a carefully thrown chain, yanking on it viciously to send careening into the concrete building nearby, cracking the masonry.

Xian Pu cursed and hopped back. Mousse pulled up along side her, his eyes, even through his coke-bottle glasses, betraying his disappointment. Nobody made any moves, and Rogue took the whole scene in with a sense of dread. She knew who these two were, and knew why they didn't do anything else. Ranma had promised he wouldn't fight them again, provided they left Akane alone. If either of them hurt one hair on her head, Ranma had vowed, before Ku Lon, an elder of their tribe, to hunt down and kill every last Amazon on the Earth, starting with them.

Both of them knew that Ranma could easily kill them if he wanted. Both also knew that Ranma would probably die trying to wipe out the Amazon nation. Probably. But, they had both been there when he'd taken out Saffron, and they held enough fear of his potential to do as he claimed that they didn't want to risk it. Ku Lon had forbidden them from even putting themselves in a position where they might accidentally harm Akane, which had worked out great for Ranma as long as they had been together. But, since Kasumi's marriage, he hadn't really run into either of the pair.

It occurred to him that they might not know that he and Akane were no longer an item. He immediately wrapped his arms around her stomach and pulled her close. Akane stiffened for a moment before she relaxed, aware of what he was doing. Given how close he was standing to her, there was no way either of the Amazons could reliably attack him without collateral damage - namely, Akane.

Neither was willing to risk it and eventually the stalemate ended. Xian Pu walked away and pulled her mace out of the building where it was embedded in the concrete, and putting it on her shoulder, walked back to face the pair. She held up the mangled remains of the panties she found in the park.

"Is... Akane's?"

Akane picked up the shredded underwear and briefly glanced at it. She turned on Ranma. "Damnit, Ranma! How many times have I told you to stop taking my underwear?"

Ranma hung his head. "Sorry."

"You're buying me a new set."

"Got it."

Xian Pu glanced at the pair suspiciously. Mousse simply wrinkled his nose in disgust, muttering something about the Anything Goes School of pervertry. Akane arched an eyebrow.

Eventually, the Amazons slinked off, but Ranma knew that this wouldn't be the last of it.

Akane shoved the useless garment in her bag, and continued walking the way she had been before Ranma interrupted her. Both he and Rogue fell into step on the each side of her, neither saying anything.

"Rough day?" she asked.

Ranma grunted.

She pulled out the underwear. "Happosai?"

Ranma grunted again.

She turned to Rogue. "Yours, I take it?"

Rogue nodded. "Been searching for those for a month."

"I forgot to warn you about Ranma. He likes to keep the underwear of girls he's deflowered."

Akane laughed as Ranma spluttered and Rogue blushed. Akane didn't want to risk the Amazons seeing a transfer of underwear. She put it back in her bag with promises of handing over the torn remains later. Rouge didn't care, and in the end they ended up tossing them in a trash can as they walked past.

Ranma glanced around nervously. He indicated that the Amazons were still following, hanging back just out of sight. This wasn't how he had planned to spend his afternoon, and it was obvious that Akane was a bit miffed about it as well. She'd been on her way to meet her girlfriend, as they had a karaoke date tonight. Unfortunately, with the Amazons following, there was little for him to do but follow along and act the part of the loving fiancé, at least until they got bored and left.

Rezu was less than happy with the change of plans. She knew that she had to play the part of a close friend; she'd seen enough of the stuff that had happened when Ranma and Akane were still together to know that she didn't stand a chance of surviving if she got wrapped up in the chaos. So, instead of being an intimate date for two, the four of them crowded into a small Karaoke room in the entertainment district with cheap beer and loud music, knowing the Amazons would give up after a while.

Nervous and distracted, Ranma downed a couple of drinks in rapid succession. Somehow, it went from Karaoke to a straight out drinking contest. At some time during the night, a thought occurred to him about Happosai's technique, but he was too many drinks into the evening to articulate it coherently. Ranma was still a light weight, and quickly lost count of how many drinks Akane forced him to down. He really couldn't say no, since she'd pulled his bacon from the fire earlier. She was always the one pushing him to do stuff like that. Rogue, to his surprise, kept pace easily, seemingly less affected by the booze than he was. He slurred badly when he asked about it, but she just shrugged and blamed it on her Irish blood.

The party went from the karaoke booth to a cheap izakaya, and from there to yet another bar. Things blurred after that as the alcohol obliterated all conscious thought.

=-=-=-

Ranma awoke the next morning and instantly regretted it. His body was telling him three things. First, he had a huge hangover. He hated drinking with Akane, because it was one contest he always lost. Second, his mouth tasted like ass. Or at least, female genitalia. He knew that taste all too well, and didn't even want to think about what it meant. He hoped he hoped he hoped that he didn't end up in bed with Akane after last night, because that would just make things really awkward between them. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure he had, considering that the third, and probably scariest thing, his body was telling him was that someone female was draped across his naked body, her hair spilling across his chest.

Ranma willed himself to open his eyes. Fearing what he would see, but knowing he had to do it anyway, he looked down fully expecting to see Akane with one arm slung haphazardly across his chest and her leg wrapped around his waist. Man, Rezu'd be pissed about this.

He gasped instead when he saw that it was Rogue's hair on his torso.

His gasp must have woken her up, because she started and jerked her head up, her arm and leg still around his body. He immediately felt the familiar drain that came from having his ki stolen.

"Rogue... you need to..." He wasn't able to tell her to stop, though, because he quickly blacked out.

=-=-=-

He came to much later. His head was swimming and his body felt incredibly abused.

"Here."

He cracked one eye open to see Rogue holding a glass of water out to him. He accepted it gingerly, and sitting up, drank it down in one long gulp. "More," he croaked.

Rogue nodded and poured him another glass from a plastic bottle. He noticed that she was fully dressed, while he was still naked. He drank this glass down too, and held out the glass for another refill. He just watched her as she poured. She didn't meet his eyes, staring at the glass intently as she filled it near the brim.

"How much do you remember?" She asked.

He shook his head and winced. The pounding in his temples didn't help any. He held the water glass carefully in his hand. "Nothing, really." He took a sip. "Last thing I remember is you and Rezu doing some duet on an Beatles number, then Akane lining up a bunch of beer and sake shots."

She looked glum. "Nothing after that?"

Ranma shook his head. He looked around the room, and recognized the setting for what it was. A cheap room with a big bed, some crazy decoration scheme with lots of red, and a basket of condoms on the night stand. He also saw three open wrappers on the night stand next to the basket. He gulped. He was in a love hotel. "Did we...?" He trailed off, nodding towards the basket of prophylactics.

She nodded, blushing lightly.

Ranma blinked. "Really?"

She blushed a bit deeper, but nodded again.

He felt guilty and looked away. "I'm sorry."

She grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled his head around so he could look into his eyes. "Don't be. I WANTED it, Ranma."

He nodded and let out a breath. He cracked a small smile. "Yeah. Me too. Just wish I could remember it." He tried to move his head. "Will you let go of my hair?"

She did, causing him to spill the glass of water on himself, instantly transforming him into a girl.

Rogue blinked.

Ranma was instantly wary, gauging her reaction.

To his relief, she laughed. "Okay..." She shook her head. "I mean, I've seen it enough, but it never really occurred to me how this would affect things..."

"You okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I mean, don't expect me to go all Akane on you, but..." she trailed off, eyes roaming over his, now her, naked body. "It will just take getting used to, I guess."

Conversation reached a lull.

"So... I mean..."

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Go ahead. I know you're dying to ask."

"How was it?"

"It was everything I was hoping it would be." She smiled, a genuine smile, then leaned forward to kiss Ranma lightly on the lips. She immediately pulled back, though, because she started draining Ranma's ki on contact.

"Really?" She scratched the back of his head, oddly embarrassed.

She nodded.

"Huh." Ranma held out her glass for a bit more water. Rogue obligingly refilled it, and she grunted and downed the whole thing in a gulp. Ranma didn't know what to say, so in true Saotome fashion, said the first thing that came to his mind. "How? I mean... with your condition..."

She shrugged. "I don't know. You said there was something you wanted to try, and you took me here. After that..." She grinned. "What ever you did, it worked." She got a glazed expression on her face as she thought back. "Did it ever work. I haven't experienced something like that, in like... well, ever."

Ranma was still too out of it to think much. He put the glass down and flopped back on the bed.

"Rogue?"

She arched an eyebrow at him.

"I'm going to pass out now."

=-=-=-

The next time Ranma woke up she was feeling good enough to actually be embarrassed. She sat up and pushed the thin sheet down to her waist. Her mind was functioning a bit better, and everything that had happened caught up with her, even if he couldn't remember. Rogue wasn't in the bed, and judging from the sound of running water coming from the bathroom, she was cleaning up. Rogue came out of the bathroom shortly afterwards, wrapped in a towel and carrying a glass of hot water.

She walked over to the bed and pulled the sheet down to Ranma's ankles. Then, without ceremony, she dumped the glass of hot water on Ranma, turning her into a him. Rogue then pulled her towel off, gave him a cursory dry off, she pushed on his shoulder with her bare hand. Immediately, he could feel the ki being drained by her. His strength left his body and he collapsed backwards onto the bed. Calmly, she reached down to his feet and pulled the sheet up to his chin so that she covered most of his skin. Then, she climbed climbed on top of him, the sheet the only thing separating their naked bodies.

He gulped. "Rogue?"

"Ranma, I like you. A lot. And I know you like me." She tapped her head. "You can't hide it from me, because I know. So I'm tired of messing around. We both wanted this to happen, and I'm glad it did." She crawled on the bed and straddled his sheet clad hips. "Last night was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced." She leaned forward until her nose was right above his. Her gaze bore into his eyes. She slowly started to grind on his hips, rubbing herself on his rapidly expanding manhood through the sheet. "Now that I know it's possible, you'd better figure out what you did, because I want that again." She smiled, but didn't stop her rocking. "So if you don't want me to drain your ki dry, you'd better figure it out soon. Because I want you, and I'm gonna have you. Got it?"

He nodded.

"Rogue?"

"Hmn?"

"You might want to stop..."

"Why?"

"Because I'm afraid I might not be able to stop myself." he trailed off.

"Good." She smirked and kept moving. "I'm glad we agree, then."

=-=-=-=-

It was kind of a relief in a way. Rogue knew how he felt because his memories didn't lie. Freed from the terror of having to actually express himself verbally, he was able to relax a bit and enjoy the situation for what it was.

He was alone with a girl he like a whole lot, and they had a hotel room alone to themselves. They tried a lot of different things, but he wasn't able to figure it out. Every time she touched him, she still drained his ki. It made physical intimacy impossible, but that didn't mean they didn't enjoy themselves.

Pissed at the situation, he stumbled to the bathroom and into the shower, turning the water on as hot as it would go and just sat under the flow, allowing the heat to sooth his alcohol abused body as he tried desperately to remember what had occurred.

He was so distracted he practically yelped when Rogue joined him in the shower. She was very naked. His body reacted accordingly which caused her to smile.

"Someone's happy to see me!" She reached forward and gently caressed him, but unfortunately, whatever technique he might have used last night he didn't work. He felt the drain through a rather peculiar part of his body, and while pleasurable, quickly caused his knees to weaken as he collapsed on the floor.

Rogue looked pissed. "Well shit!"

=-=-=-

Much later, Ranma was on his back staring at the ceiling. Rogue was lying beside him, both of them worn out from their experimentation. "You know what this means, right?"

Rogue rolled over, allowing her eyes to linger on his body. "What?"

"If something this good happens to me, it means something horrible has to happen to balance it out. It's the law."

Rogue laughed. "Oh Ranma. You're just being paranoid."

He grunted. "You've got a lot of my memories. You tell me if I'm being paranoid."

Rogue opened her mouth to say something, and shut it with a click. She paled. "We're screwed, aren't we?"

He didn't say anything, but the unsettled feeling in his stomach just wouldn't go away.

* * *

End Chapter 5.

Again, not my characters. Questions, comments, and reviews welcome.


	6. Chapter 6

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

There was an unwritten rule aboard the last train of the evening – you didn't pay attention to those around you, and they afforded you the same respect. Ranma and Rogue shared the train car with a couple of drunken salary men and a group of college students who had finished a night of revelry and were heading back to their homes. Beyond drunken ramblings and soft snores, there wasn't really much conversation as fatigue and alcohol, combined with the hypnotizing motions of the train, luring most of the passengers to sleep or caused them to stare, with vacant, bleary-eyed expressions, at the passing nighttime cityscape.

Ranma was the sole exception. His mind was churning as Rogue slept on his shoulder, her head rocking gently with the swaying of the train.

He was racking his brains trying to remember what he'd done that had led to this situation in the first place. While he didn't regret it in the least, he knew that he also wasn't ready to face the consequences of this what they had done. He didn't regret it at all, and knowing that worried him even more. Given his luck, he knew it would only be a matter of time before the situation devolved into the normal chaos that was his life. Hopefully, he'd have enough time between now and that distant future to try and figure out how in the hell he was going to get out of this situation with tarnishing his, and the Tendo's, honors beyond repair.

He nearly missed the call for the Nerima station when the train pulled in. Ranma roused Rogue and they slipped out of the car before the doors closed. The walk from the train station to the dojo was brisk and silent, but not in an uncomfortable way. The lights of the dojo were off when they arrived, but even still Ranma paused at the back wall, listening carefully for any hints that the household might be up and about. This late at night, he didn't expect anyone to be awake, but he wanted to avoid running into anyone and having them jump to the wrong – or in this case, the right – conclusion.

Ranma nodded at Rogue and picked up Rogue in a bridal carry. From there, he leapt silently to the top of the back wall, and then the roof, gently setting her down as quietly as possible. He paused for a bit, listening carefully to see if his landing had awoken anyone inside. Satisfied that nobody was awake, he silently crawled to the edge of the roof, motioning for Rogue to follow him. He peeked over the edge of the roof and saw the window to Akane's old room below and slight to his left. Gripping the edge of the roof with his hands, he swung over the side, pausing just long enough to hook his toes on the eaves and hang upside down from the roof.

The moon provided just enough light for Ranma to see what he was doing, but not enough to really make him stand out. He slowly applied more force to the window until the latch finally gave up the ghost and popped free. Ranma grimaced as the window squeaked as he slowly forced it open from the outside. Rogue peered nervously over the edge of the roof at the sound. He flashed a quick thumbs up at her and grinned, trying to calm her nerves, even though his own threatened to reduce him to a blubbering heap. Once the window was finally open enough to get in, Ranma exhaled a breath that he didn't realized he'd been holding.

He reached up towards his toes and grabbed the edge of the roof, and pulled himself up with one hand until his face was just below Rogue's.

He mouthed, "We've got to be quiet."

Rogue nodded. Ranma let go of the roof and swung back down. She slid over the edge of the roof, feet first, letting her self down until she felt Ranma grab her ankles and guide her feet to the windowsill. Once they touched the sill, she let go with her hands as Ranma pushed on her back, making sure she got into the room safely and silently. Once in, she climbed down out of the window and blew him a kiss before shutting the window as quietly as possible.

Satisfied that she was out of danger, he pulled himself back up to the roof and crept to the opposite side of the dojo before leaping down to the grass surrounding the goldfish pond. Feeling relieved that it had gone so smoothly, he crept to the entrance of the dojo and silently slid the door back. The dojo was empty, so he quickly hopped inside and turned to close the door behind him.

"Hm. Bit late, isn't it?"

He whipped around with a muffled curse, and thanked whatever Gods that usually tormented him that was Happosai and not Soun. Granted, the old goat hadn't been there seconds before, but since he hadn't made a big scene yet Ranma figured he could still get out of this relatively unscathed. The old pervert was sitting cross-legged on his pillow, silently puffing on his pipe. The only light in the dojo was red glow of the tobacco in his pipe. Happosai took a drag on his pipe, causing the embers to glow brightly in the darkness. It threw his heavily lined face into stark relief, making the wrinkles make even more pronounced than usual.

Happosai blew out a series of smoke rings, each slightly smaller than the one preceding it. He asked, "Did you have a good time, Ranma?"

Ranma eyed the pervert suspiciously. "Whaddya want?"

"Sit." Happosai gestured with his pipe, pointing at the floor in front of him. "And take off your shoes. You know better."

Ranma slipped his shoes off his feet and set them near the door, the sat on the floor with his legs under him where indicated. Happosai took another drag on his pipe, eyes half closed as he slowly exhaled a plume of smoke through his nostrils.

"You're in luck today, Ranma."

"Meetin' you ain't never lucky."

Happosai arched an eyebrow. "You might not want to take that tone with me, considering I'm willing to cover for you."

Ranma looked at him quizzically. "What?"

"Cover your relationship with Rogue. How do you think Soun would feel if he knew daddy's little girl was being cheated on by her fiancé? Can you imagine what a stain on your honor this would be?"

Ranma began to sweat bullets. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Happosai snorted. "You reek of sex. So does Rogue. She was a virgin a couple of days ago, and I can tell just by her aura that her cherry's been popped. You both come back under the cover of darkness after not being seen for nearly two days. Doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened there, does it?"

"I didn't do nothin' with Rogue. I was over at Akane's. We…" Ranma cast frantically for a reasonable explanation. "Akane n' me had a fling for old times' sake."

"Don't bullshit with me, boy. You can't con a pervert. I know what I smell and I know what I sense. I don't sense a hint of Akane on you, but Rogue got her claws into you good."

Ranma started to protest but was cut off by Happosai, who pulled his pipe out of his mouth and jabbed Ranma in the chest. "Ranma, so help me god, if you lie to me about this again I'll cast you out of my school. Now. Shut. Up." Happosai punctuated each word by tapping Ranma on the breast bone hard enough to make the younger martial artist grunt. Happosai put his pipe back in his mouth and took another drag, exhaling the smoke in Ranma's face with a satisfied sigh.

The silence lingered for a bit as Ranma rubbed his chest, glaring at the old pervert. Finally, he sat back on his haunches and asked, "What do you want?"

"Better." Happosai said. "Even though I've got you by the short and curlies, you'll find I'm not unreasonable." Happosai held up two fingers. "First, you've got to acknowledge me as your master and become my student. Second, I want free access to your female body for modeling purposes. If I give you something to wear, you wear it. You gripe about it or give me any shit, and we'll see what Soun thinks about your nocturnal activities. Got it?"

"Fuck you!"

"Temper, temper! Well, if you don't like my conditions, I'll just go wake Soun up and…"

Ranma shifted subtly, curling his toes under his foot in preparation to pounce.

Unfortunately, it wasn't subtle enough. Happosai's eyes narrowed as he took the movement. He didn't shift posture, but suddenly the temperature in the dojo dropped a couple of degrees as Happosai's tone became quiet and deadly. "Unless you think you can stop me, that is."

Ranma knew he couldn't start a brawl with the old man without revealing the whole reason for it. Ranma had no illusions about his ability to win a fight against Happosai. Sure, he'd be able to hold his own, but as it stood, unless he got in a lucky shot to put the old man out of action, he just wasn't good enough to take the old pervert down cleanly. Besides, the collateral damage to the dojo would be too much to risk.

Ranma relaxed, slowly. He was stuck, and he could tell that Happosai knew it, too. Rather than just give up, though, he was going to try and get something out of this. "Why do you want me to be your student?"

"I'm bored. I want to torture someone. You're available."

Ranma blinked. He hadn't expected the old man to be honest about it. "Um... Okay..." He scratched his head, pausing for time. "I'll accept, but I've got two conditions of my own."

Happosai arched an eyebrow, but didn't stop him. Encouraged, Ranma continued, "First, you actually gotta train me. No pervey stuff. If you want me to be your student, than you gotta really train me like one. I want to know how you keep Rogue from drainin' ya."

"And the second condition?" Happosai asked.

"You help me figure a way out of this mess that doesn't hurt the Tendo's honor."

"Done."

"Really?" Ranma blinked.

"Yes, really."

"But you've never done anything nice in your life."

Happosai snorted. "You're wrong about that. Remember that one time for those orphaned children?"

"Yeah, and that broke you for a couple of weeks."

Happosai shrugged. "And now I get to break you. The calculus works for me." He took a drag on his pipe. "The training I've in mind for you will make what your dad did look like a cake walk."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Bring it on." Unfortunately, he missed the gleam in Happosai's eye.

The pervert suddenly asked, "So, how was she?"

"Huh?"

Happosai rapped the pig-tailed martial artist on the top of his head with his pipe, sending him sprawling. "Rogue, you idiot. Now, tell your Master everything."

Ranma rubbed his head and glared at Happosai. "No way! It's none of your business."

"Awww... come on!"

"No!"

"Please?..."

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

Ranma awoke the next morning severely disorientated and uncomfortable. She was disorientated because she was pretty sure she'd gone to bed as a he, and she didn't remember changing sex. She was uncomfortable because she felt like she had a vice on her chest. She blinked, snapping awake as she realized there was a weight on her chest, and it was currently pawing her boobs in a rather uncouth fashion.

Aura flaring as her temper exploded, she attempted to dislodge Happosai from her breasts as he took liberties with her body. She took a swipe at him but missed. She over committed, and by the time she recovered the demented martial artist had smacked her on the ass and was already heading out the window. She moved to follow, but something red and diaphanous hit her in the face. She ripped it off and looked at it. It was a rather racy sheer bra, with a note that read "stay female and put this on for training" pinned to it in Happosai's barely legible handwriting.

Grumbling to herself, she threw the offending garment to the floor and prepared to head out after the pervert, but was stopped by yet another lacy bit of naughtiness. Only this one had a stone in it and caught her between the eyes. Cursing and rubbing her forehead as her eyes watered, Ranma looked down and saw a matching pair of underpants. Again, there was a note pinned to this one as well. It said, "and if you don't wear the bra, you can forget about turning into a boy again for a long time."

The stream of profanity that followed would have made a sailor take notes. Ranma slipped the bra on with a snarl, but not before she also put on a decent sports bra under it. Sure, she agreed to wear it, but she never agreed that she wouldn't wear anything else.

She slipped her shirt back on and took off after the rapidly diminishing form of Happosai. Even with her rage, it still took her a while to catch up, even going full out. When she finally caught up, Happosai turned around and faced her from the rooftop he had landed on across the street from her current position.

"You wearing the bra?"

"Regretfully, ya."

Happosai grinned. "Good. Now, you've got to keep it on. If I get it off you, you don't get to eat for the rest of the day."

Ranma squawked. The squawk turned into a shriek as Happosai launched himself at her. For the next two hours, she dodge Happosai by running all over the district while engaged in a running battle of trading blows in order to prevent the old pervert from "liberating" his "lacy darlings". The battle eventually ended up back in the Tendo yard. In desperation, Ranma took to the air over the koi pond, tempting the old man to follow. She grinned viciously as he took the bait, launching into the air after her.

Only a highly trained martial artist could have even hoped to follow the flurry of blows that followed when the two met in the air. Finally, Ranma managed to snake a kick in past the old man's guard, and send him rocketing towards the water below. Rather than splash down like she expected, Happosai landed lightly on the surface of the water and leapt clear, only getting the bottom of his shoe wet.

Worn out and breathing heavily, Ranma dropped down with considerably less grace on the other side of the koi pond, staring at his foot intently.

Happosai pulled a wadded up red cloth out of his pocket and wiped off a light sheen of sweat from his forehead. "Not bad, Ranma, not bad." He tossed the rag to Ranma, who snatched it out of the air and recognized it for the bra she'd put on earlier. "But not good enough, either."

Ranma shoved the bra into her own pocket. "How did you do that?"

"What?"

"The water."

Happosai shook his head. "You're not ready for that yet."

"Okay, then teach me how you keep from getting' drained."

"You're not ready for that, either. We'll start small. You've got to figure how I got the bra off you first. I'll expect an answer after I'm done with breakfast. I'll see you in the dojo." Happosai walked easily over to the dojo veranda and into the kitchen, where Kasumi was busily preparing breakfast.

"Kasumi-san!"

"Oh, good morning Grandfather Happosai!"

"Ranma won't be joining us for breakfast this morning. He's got something else he needs to be doing..."

Ranma flipped the old pervert the finger. She headed into the dojo, intent on replaying the morning's session through so she could figure out when she'd been defrocked.

Happosai came in a while later and found her meditating.

"So, did you figure it out?"

Ranma didn't bother to open her eyes. "No. But I think it happened when I kicked you."

"Oh?" Happosai sat down. "Do tell."

Ranma shrugged. "You didn't hit the water with nearly as much speed as you should have given how hard I kicked you. So, I figure you must have diverted the energy of my kick into the elastic of the bra somehow to bleed off some momentum. You took it on the way down."

Happosai rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Clever. It's a good idea, but wrong. You should know I'd never risk hurting one of my silky darlings with a move like that!"

Ranma sighed. "Okay, then what did you do?"

"For such a prodigy, you can be a real idiot sometimes. I guess it's to be expected, given how young you are, and who your father is."

Ranma finally opened her eyes. "You callin' my dad an idiot?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Ranma blinked. "Okay then. Just so we understand."

"Other guesses?" Happosai prompted.

Ranma shook her head.

Happosai snorted. "Alright then." He pulled out a pile of bras from his pocket and flung them to Ranma. "I'm happy to keep beating on you until you get it."

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

"Soun."

The Tendo patriarch looked up from his paper with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. "Yes, Master?" The old man was standing out on the veranda, looking at the koi pond. He looked unusually grim.

"You're training Rogue now in the mornings. I want you to teach her everything."

"Everything?" Soun blinked.

"Yes."

"Ah… of course, Master. May I ask why?"

"Ranma's my student now."

Soun blinked again.

"Soun?"

"Yes, Master?"

"Pull no punches."

Something in Happosai's voice made Soun shiver.

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

Rogue found Ranma that morning on her back in the dojo with her eyes closed, surrounded by a pile of sweaty lingerie. When she didn't move at the sound of her footsteps, she bent over her prostrate form and poked her gently in the forehead with a bare finger.

Ranma opened one eye and looked at her. "What was that for?"

She shrugged. "You were open. Mind if I sit?"

Ranma shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Thanks for letting me sleep in today. I'm still a bit hung over, I think."

"Didn't have a choice, really." Rogue stepped over her body and brushed some of the underwear away from where she wanted to sit. She sank down into a cross legged pose at the top of Ranma's head so she could look down at her. "You look like shit," she said. "Happosai?"

Ranma chuckled. "Yeah. How'd you guess."

"He sent me in here to 'clean you off the floor."" Rogue warily picked up some of the underwear she had moved. "Plus, there's lots of this stuff around. I really hope it isn't yours, because this color would just clash horribly with your skin tones." She dropped the offending article on to Ranma's head. "So, what were you guys doing in here?"

Ranma picked up the garment and tossed it aside. "Ki techniques."

Rogue perked up. "Really?"

"Yeah. Turns out the pervert had something useful to tell me, after all."

"So, what is it?"

"It's like the ki equivalent of a tai chi move. You use your opponents own ki against him, but rather than to inflict pain, you use it to prevent injury to yourself. It's not hard, but it takes an incredible amount of control and also timing."

"So, what's with the bras, then?"

"Happosai's a pervert. He couldn't demonstrate it normally unless he was taking one off."

Rogue scratched her head. "I'm confused."

Ranma motioned for her to get up. She did so, and the red-head sprang to her feet and took a ready pose. "Alright. Now, kick me."

Rogue shrugged and sent a half-hearted snap kick at Ranma's midsection. The other girl snorted and blocked it. "Come on, Rogue. This only works if you put something into it."

"Fine." Focusing a bit harder, Rogue's foot shot out again, catching Ranma in the stomach and sending the smaller girl across the dojo floor. Rogue's eyes widened and she ran over to where Ranma was curled in a ball. "I thought you were going to block!"

"I did!" Ranma uncurled and popped up with a wink, holding up Rogue's bra between them. Then she noticed exactly what it looked like and blushed. "Wow. That's… a nice choice."

Rogue snagged it out of Ranma's hands and wrapped it around her back so the clasps met in the front over her navel. With practiced hands, she fastened the clasps and flipped it around so she could shrug into it under her shirt. "If you wanted to see it, you could have just asked, you know."

The conversation sort of ground to a halt as Rogue continued to squirm into her bra without taking off her shirt. Ranma just watched, fascinated by the way her body moved in response.

"You could have helped."

Ranma shook her head with a grin. "It's in my interest not to."

Rogue stuck her tongue out. Ranma looked around to make sure they were alone and stole a kiss while she was making faces at him. Rogue's eyes widened when she realized she was kissing a girl, but she quickly got passed her shock and returned the kiss eagerly. Unfortunately, the ki drain had stated on contact and so Rogue pulled away once she could feel Ranma weakening. Ranma collapsed onto her back onto the dojo floor.

Rogue grimaced and scooted around so she could see Ranma's face.

Ranma tilted her head to look at her. "I'm sorry, Rogue."

She shook her head. "Not your fault. I just wish I could touch you. Like a normal person."

"I know."

Rogue lay down on her side on the floor next to the red-head, propping her head up on her hand as she looked down. "What are we gonna do?"

Ranma turned her head to stare up at the ceiling. "I don't know." She wasn't exactly sure which part of the problem she was talking about, though. It was easier to distract herself than to dwell. "You wanna train?"

Rogue snorted. "No. I wanna fuck, but I guess training will have to do for now."

Ranma grinned but then remembered where she was. "Maybe we can talk about that later. Walls have ears here."

Rogue pouted. "Okay. But you," she poked Ranma in the breast, "will have to buy me ice cream, then, or I'll get you good."

"Oh yeah? Is that a threat, or a promise?"

Rogue made sure she was alone, then leaned forward and whispered in Ranma's ear. "A promise. You should know I don't make threats I can't deliver on."

Her voice was tinged with lust induced huskiness that caused Ranma to shiver. "Deal." A lecherous grin appeared on her face. She glanced over at Rogue to see a matching smirk on her face.

"You too?"

"Yeah."

The sound of a throat clearing behind them made them both jump. Happosai stood looking at the pair, his hands behind his back and for once his expression completely serious.

"Sit down," he said. Rogue did as instructed, sitting down next to Ranma, both of them keeping a wary eye out on the old pervert. Happosai was unperturbed. "Rogue, you are no longer to train with Ranma unless it is supervised by me."

Both Ranma and Rogue objected loudly to this. Happosai's face darkened and the protests died under his withering gaze. "Good." He paused. "In the mornings, Ranma will be working with me. Rogue, Soun is now in charge of your training. In the afternoons, when you get back from school, I will be in charge of your training."

Neither of them was expecting this. Ranma finally asked why.

"Your gift is dangerous."

Rogue snapped, "You think I don't know that?"

"You could have fooled me. You don't seem to be working very hard on learning to control it."

Rogue's annoyance at the old man, already high, spilled over. "Just what do you think I've been doing since I got here? Taking baking lessons? I've been working on meditation and control, and I've gotten better."

Happosai ignored her protests. Faster than she could react, he reached forward and grabbed her hand by the wrist. He held his other hand out to Ranma. "Ranma, your hand, please."

Ranma held out her hand.

Happosai looked directly at Rogue. "Open your hand."

She tried to pull away but couldn't. "Let go of me."

Happosai repeated his command.

"No!" Rogue tried unsuccessfully once again to pull free. Something in his tone of voice was making her nervous.

Happosai applied pressure to her wrist and twisted, causing her to gasp in pain and her hand to open automatically. Before she could react, he placed her hand on Ranma's. They both paled as Rogue could feel the ki drain starting. She started pulling frantically on Happosai's grip, trying to get free.

The old man completely ignored her struggles as he said in a conversational tone, "So you've been training. But you haven't been working to control your gift. You've been content to let Ranma figure it all out." Happosai continued. "But you see, it's your gift, so it's your problem. Not Ranma's. If you want to fix it, you're going to have to work on it."

Next to her, Ranma was becoming increasingly pale as she was drained of ki. Rogue wanted to argue with him, but she knew he was right. "Alright." She licked her lips nervously. "You've proven your point. Let go."

"No." Happosai just held on. "You realize you're going to kill him, right?" Happosai nodded in Ranma's direction.

"Let go!"

Beside her, Ranma's eyes rolled back in her head as she fainted. The thud of him hitting the ground made her flinch. Happosai didn't let go, though. Ranma's breathing turned ragged.

"LET GO!" She tried desperately to pull free. "PLEASE!"

Happosai continued to ignore her, instead watching Ranma. Rogue started crying as Ranma's breathing continued to become more labored. Finally, it stopped.

At that moment Happosai let go of her hand. Rogue instantly scrambled over to Ranma, but before she could help him she felt a powerful kick to her chest, knocking her across the dojo. She slid to a stop against one of the far walls hard enough to see stars.

She heard a thud as Happosai pounded once on Ranma's chest. With a gasp, the pig-tailed martial artists took in tortured gasp as her heart restarted. She curled into a ball as she tried to catch her breath, taking huge gulps of air.

Rogue staggered to her feet, unable to see straight because of her anger and tears. "You fucking crazy old pervert! You nearly killed him!" She ran over to Ranma and cradled her head in her lap, wanting comfort the martial artists with her hands but knowing that she couldn't touch her.

"No." Happosai face her. "You did. We're going to do this every day until you learn to control your gift, or you kill him."

With that, the old man left the dojo.

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

"Rogue, wait up!"

Rogue spun and saw Akane running down the path. She waited until the other girl caught up.

Akane kept looking over at the other girl as they fell into step together.

"Are you okay?" Akane asked.

Rogue shook her head, not really trusting herself to speak right now.

Akane bit her lower lip. "Hey, um… You want to get some coffee, or something, so we can talk about it? You'll feel better, I promise."

Rogue didn't want to, but eventually agreed. They slid into opposite sides of a booth at the school cafeteria, each with a cup of tea in front of them. Under Akane's prompting, Rogue related the story with Happosai in the dojo that morning. Akane was understandably upset, but there was little she could do.

"What are you going to do?" Akane asked.

Rogue shook her head and sighed. "I don't know. I just…" she trailed off. "I don't want to hurt him, Akane."

Akane nodded and reached over to hold her hand. Unfortunately, Rogue wasn't wearing gloves and started draining her ki immediately. Akane pulled her hand back like she'd been shocked.

Rogue burst into tears.

"Rogue! Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" Akane got up and came over to Rogue's side of the booth. Carefully, she rubbed the other girl's back, taking care to avoid any skin to skin contact. Eventually Rogue managed to calm down. She gave Akane a sheepish smile as she wiped her eyes and blew her nose on a tissue.

"Sorry."

"No, it's okay. I understand." Akane rubbed her back some more. "You love him, don't you?"

Rogue nodded.

Akane grinned at her and chuckled.

Finally, Rogue had enough. "What?"

"Where'd you guys go after the bar? Me and Rezu lost sight of you guys. We got worried when you didn't answer your phones."

"I really don't think this is the best time to talk about that, Akane. I mean, Happosai nearly killed Ranma using my own powers."

Akane shrugged. "Happosai's a bastard. No denying that. But I want to know about what happened!"

Rogue laughed. The topic change was welcome, though. "We…" Rogue trailed off, thinking about how to phrase it. "We ended up way too drunk and passed out in a hotel room."

Akane blinked. "Really?"

"Yes?"

"You guys had sex, didn't you?"

Rogue looked away. "I'm not answering that."

Akane practically squealed. "This is great!"

Rogue tried to get the other girl to calm down. In the end, she had to agree to go back to Akane's room and tell her all the gory details. It took a lot longer than she thought and surprisingly, she enjoyed telling her about the whole experience a lot more than she thought she would. By the end, she wasn't nearly as upset about the morning, even though it did cast a pall over the tale.

Akane leaned back on her bed. "You're lucky, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"Ranma. I mean, his sense of honor's so fine tuned that he wouldn't have done that, no matter how drunk he was, if he didn't want to." She gave a little mirthless chuckle. "I should know. You have no idea how many times Xian Pu tried to get him liquored up and into the sack."

"I know he likes me. He couldn't hide it from me even if he wanted to." Rogue tapped her head.

"So how did you get around your condition, anyway?"

Rogue sighed and flopped down onto the bed next to her boyfriend's ex-fiancée. "Not sure. It was something Ranma did, but he hasn't been able to recreate it yet."

Akane clapped her hands. "That's good news, then! You know it can happen!"

"Yeah." Rogue's earlier funk returned. "But will it happen before I kill him?"

Akane rolled over to her bedside nightstand and opened the top drawer. She rummaged around for a bit and pulled out a rather large and realistic looking dildo. "Maybe you can borrow this to distract you until Ranma figures it out?"

"Akane? You're a sweet girl, but that's just gross."

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

Things fell quickly into a pattern at the Dojo. Happosai didn't lie. His training regimen made his days under his father look like a cake walk.

Happosai kept him sleep deprived and his ki supply virtually empty. Every morning he'd get thrown out of bed and trained to the point of muscular failure. From there, he was forced to spar with Rogue until he was both physically exhausted and drained of ki. His reaction times suffered. Things he could have shrugged off at full strength were impossible to ignore while so weak. Happosai took no mercy on him though, brutally destroying his guard and picking him apart. After he was done, he had Ranma meditate to try and rebuild his ki as rapidly as possible and working on more advanced ki manipulation.

If the physical training was hard, the ki manipulation was worse. Ki manipulation, done incorrectly, hurt. It had consequences. Being exhausted and running dangerously low on ki only made the exercises harder. Needless to say, Ranma ended up in Tofu's clinic a lot, being treated for ki burns and exhaustion on top of his training injuries.

Rogue' training was with Soun was no less brutal. Soun was determined to ensure she was working as hard as Ranma. Classes lasted until breakfast, and then they had to head off to their respective schools. Ranma was so exhausted he ended up sleeping in most of his. Before, the afternoons were an opportunity for Rogue and Ranma to work on ki exercises together. However, under the new training regimen, it was all Ranma could do to stay awake until dinner time.

In the evenings, Happosai took Rogue aside. He first forced her to drain Ranma until he collapsed, and then set about training her. His training was very different from Ranma's. Ranma was trying to develop her ki pathways so she could control and manipulate it. Happosai, on the other hand, was trying to teach her to shut those pathways down so she couldn't drain people. It involved a lot of pressure points and nerve attacks and was perhaps the most painful thing she'd ever experienced in her life.

Surprisingly, Happosai had left the two of them alone for the most part, not bothering Rogue as much as he had previously. Except at bath time, that is. Ranma was too tired to maintain a changing room vigil to keep the old pervert out of the bathroom while Rogue was bathing. So the old pervert took advantage of it, groping Rogue with near impunity.

He didn't need Rogue's insistence to find some way to fix the problem. For both their sakes, he needed to figure it out, and fast. He wasn't sure how much longer he could last like this. He'd done it once. He could do it again. Ranma Saotome never failed.

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

Happosai kicked through Ranma's guard and sent the pig-tailed martial artist rocketing towards the pond again. Ranma, now female, didn't even try to get out of the pond.

"Get up," Happosai commanded.

With a groan, Ranma rolled over and unsteadily worked her way to her feet. She tried to get into a ready stance, but she was so weak that Happosai didn't even bother with subterfuge. He blasted through her guard and sent her crashing into the wall of the compound. Ranma bounced off the wall and crumpled.

Happosai walked over to where the red-head had collapsed. "Get up."

Struggling weakly, Ranma managed to get one arm under her and pushed up. She wasn't able to get much farther, though, because Happosai kicked her in the ribs, flipping her over and knocking the breath out of her lungs.

"Pathetic." Happosai kicked her in the ribs again. "Why are you so weak, hmm?"

Ranma growled, but it was cut short as another foot caught her in her already sore ribs. "Not! Weak!" She gasped, "no…ki."

Happosai stopped kicking her. "Whose fault is that?"

Panting, Ranma just lay there.

Happosai kicked her again and asked the same question. "Why are you out of ki?"

"Drained," was Ranma's response.

"Have you learned nothing? There's all this ki just floating around. Use it! Take it! What are you waiting for?"

Ranma gasped as another kick found her ribs. She felt something break. Beyond exhaustion at this point, her mind became detached from her body as she floated between consciousness and oblivion. Pain was something that happened to her body, but her mind was free. Her senses were a dull, jumbled mess because her body had been pushed too far. At the same time, everything around her seemed vibrant and almost hyper-saturated with color.

Happosai pulled out a pair of used underwear and wiped his brow. To Ranma, it seemed to burn like the sun.

Finally, she understood. She was so drained of ki, her body was breaking down. But everything else around her was just saturated in ki, bleeding of bits of it into the atmosphere. With nothing left to lose, she opened up.

It felt almost like drowning. Ranma inhaled deeply, but instead of taking in a lung full of water, she inhaled as much ki as she could, willing her body to absorb it. It burned. The little bit of ki also made her aware of how badly she was hurt, which only added to the pain.

She felt the next kick coming at her again. She let the flood gates open, absorbing as much ki as she could and tried to block the kick. It was clumsy, but instead of catching her on the ribs again, she was able to block it with her forearm.

"Good!" Happosai chuckled. "Very good." The kicks stopped coming. "It took you long enough."

Ranma's vision swam in and out of focus. She heard Happosai telling her to rest up, because the evening session was going to be even worse.

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

Happosai was already in the Dojo with Ranma when Rogue came in. The two of them were sitting in the middle of the floor in a meditative position. Happosai opened one eye when she came in and indicated she should sit next to Ranma.

Rogue hesitated. She hated this. It was always the same in these "lessons." When she sat down next to Ranma, Happosai would force her to drain Ranma until he was practically out of ki.

"Now."

She did, but was unable to relax. She jumped when she felt a hand briefly squeeze her knee, but relaxed a bit when she realized it was Ranma's. Happosai got up and walked in circles around the couple, his footsteps falling softly on the dojo's wooden floors.

"Tonight's lesson," started the old man, "is about the way in which ki behaves."

Ranma snorted and then yelped as he got brained by Happosai's pipe. The old man made the pipe disappear with a flourish and continued his pacing. "Hmph. If you want to live through this exercise, I suggest you listen well. Ki is the energy given off by living things. But at the same time, all living matter is comprised of ki. Rock or flesh, it's all basically ki on one form or another. Your body is energy. The wood you are sitting on is energy. Everything is energy. Just because it is solid now does not mean that it can't be converted to energy at some point."

Even at the risk of being brained again, Ranma interrupted. "Like you and your panties, huh? You just use them as little batteries."

Rogue snorted and peeked at Ranma. He gave her a wink. Happosai didn't bother to correct the pig-tailed martial artist. Instead, he nodded.

"Essentially, yes. Panties are close to areas that give off a lot of life energy. They're great for that. But more importantly, I also happen to be a true pervert and they help satisfy one of my many kinks."

Ranma and Rogue had the same reaction. "Ew."

"Don't knock it till you've tried it." The pacing stopped. "But unlike the electricity stored in batteries, ki's alive. It thinks. It feels. It _moves_. Like water, it has potential energy. Dam it up and allow the quantity to build up, and it becomes an unstoppable force when it is finally released. Or, if you allow a small trickle through and the power can be harnessed for other purposes, like augmenting your body. But, like electricity, if you build up too much potential, it will find someway to equalize the imbalance. Too much charge in one area and ki jumps to make sure all the charges are equalized."

"Like lighting," said Rogue.

"It's a bit more complicated, than that, but essentially yes." Happosai nodded. "Because ki is most basic component of life, it is always positively charged and is looking to move into areas where ki doesn't exist. I bring this up is because of your condition."

The old man stepped in front of Ranma and barked out his name.

"Yeah?" Ranma replied.

"What have you discovered about Rogue's ki that is unique?"

The pigtailed martial artist slumped over and scratched his head. "Well… it's weird. I don't know how best to explain it. Everyone has a distinct ki signature, but there are things that are similar in everyone. Like their aura, or the color of their ki, ya know?"

Happosa nodded. "Continue."

"Well, hers is like the opposite of that." Ranma said. "Where I'd expect white or neutral tones, hers are black. It's kind of like looking at a photo negative. It also fluctuates every time she drains someone, and the whole spectrum just flips until it matches the aura of whoever she's drained. It remains stable for a short bit until it starts to degrade and reverts back to 'normal.'"

Happosai nodded and turned towards Rogue. "When you drain someone, how do you feel?"

Rogue blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Do you notice any physical differences?" Happosai asked. "Nausea, headaches, anything?"

Rogue shook her head. "No, nothing like that." She paused. "If I drain someone deeply, it feels like I've had a strong cup of coffee, though."

Happosai nodded and turned back to his student. "Anything else you've noticed about her ki, Ranma?"

"Yeah." Ranma said. "It seems to circulate differently in her than other people."

Happosai nodded and indicated he should continue.

Ranma balled his fists up and placed them at his stomach. "In everyone else I've ever seen, their ki starts here, in their stomach, then expands outward." He opened his hands, moving them in opposite directs as he opened his fingers, mimicking the way ki expanded in the body. He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb at his girlfriend. "In her, it seems to do the opposite. It starts at the outside and collapses towards her stomach."

"And when it gets there?" Happosai prompted.

He got a far off stare. "I don't know what happens to it next. I mean, I should be able to track it moving through her body, right? So, when it gets to her core, it should stay there, right? I mean, it can't go anywhere else unless it's pushed there, but I can't see it moving. Where does it go? I don't understand. It should be moving to her limbs every time she does a ki based move, but it doesn't." He shook his head. "I'm stumped, and Tofu doesn't understand it either."

Happosai nodded. "And you probably wouldn't, no matter how long you worked at it. It's not normal, and by rights she shouldn't be alive."

Ranma looked troubled, but he nodded. "Yeah, I figured as much. So, what's going on, then?"

Happosai pointed at Rogue. "You can't see her ki move because it doesn't look anything like you'd expect it to. Everything has an opposite. Like matter and anti-matter. Ki's a positive life force. Everything has it. But, somehow, Rogue's negatively charged. That's why her aura is weird, and why her ki reacts differently than you'd expect. It makes her a black hole. Ki needs to move, going to areas that don't have any. Anything she touches with will be forced to give up its ki to try and fill the void." He got a nasty grin. "But you can't fill a black hole. It just keeps taking and taking, growing stronger with each addition, until eventually it consumes everything around it. Nothing can escape."

Both the younger adults shifted in their seats, clearly uncomfortable with this image.

"So where does the ki go?" Rogue asked.

Happosai shrugged. "I bet a portion of it is still there, sitting in your core. If you ever figure out how to access that, you'll be very, very formidable as an opponent. However, a vast majority of it gets converted into the memories and abilities you gain when you drain someone, and the rest gets converted into whatever weird energies you need to survive." The old man sat down opposite the couple, facing them.

Silence stretched as the pair chewed this over in their mind. Finally, Ranma asked, "So why were we able to..." Both he and Rogue blushed. "Why was I able to stop it before?"

Happosai snorted. "Why were you able to fuck her before, you mean?"

The pair shifted uncomfortably. Eventually, Rogue nodded. "Yeah. Why, for just that one time, was Ranma able to touch me?"

"What makes you think Ranma had anything to do with it?" Happosai arched an eyebrow.

Ranma sat up straight and opened his mouth to protest. Happosai watched in amusement as the gears in the boy's head caught up with his mouth. Before he said anything, he sat back down with a grunt. "We were drunk." Ranma said slowly. "Really drunk. I thought it was something I did, but I couldn't have been. I can't really control my ki when I'm drunk." He turned to regard Rogue. "But if your ki behaves pretty much the inverse of everything I've ever been taught, then…"

He trailed off. Rogue's eyes slowly widened as she came to the same conclusion he did.

"Do you understand why the solution where Ranma stops you from draining him won't work?" Happosai asked.

They both nodded. Rogue said, "No matter how good his control gets, he won't be able to stop me forever." She looked up at the old man. "Which means…" She lunged for Happosai, but the old man bounced out of the way before she could make contact.

Happosai cackled. "Finally caught on, did you?"

Ranma blinked. "Wait. What?"

Rogue stood up and stepped menacingly towards the old man. "Happosai's not immune to my touch."

Ranma stood up too, following Rogue. "Then how?"

Happosai grinned. "Remember what you learned earlier today, Ranma?"

Ranma blinked, and then blinked again. "You're drawing ki from your surroundings, aren't you? You just feed her ambient ki, rather than your own. So she gets nothing from it. No memories, no powers, nothing."

Rogue took another step towards Happosai, intent on causing bodily harm. She was stopped in her advance, however, when Ranma grabbed her elbow.

She looked back at him. He was grinning broadly. "Come on," he said. "I want to try something." He pulled her towards the center of the dojo and took a seat, pulling her down next to him. He placed the back of his hand on her knee so that his palm was facing upwards.

"Rogue, I want you to hold my hand till I pull away, okay?"

She nodded nervously. "Ready?"

"One second." Ranma closed his eyes. She watched as his breathing slowed down a bit more and his head hung forward. "Okay. Ready!"

Rogue gingerly touched his palm with her bare skin. She heard a grunt from Ranma, and soon she could feel the ki being pulled into her body. Memories started to flood her head of the brutal sparring match he'd suffered with Happosai earlier, and the success he'd had at pulling ki from his surroundings as he finally understood what Happosai always used his stolen goods for.

Rogue's eyes widened as she understood how it felt to open up to the world around her to pull in ki. The stream of memories abruptly cut off as she felt Ranma jerk his hand away, panting.

Happosai sat in the corner of the dojo, watching the pair. "Well, how'd you do, Ranma?"

The younger man shook his head. "It was too hard. I need more practice."

Happosai nodded. "Having Rogue drain you as you practice will speed things along."

Ranma nodded.

"As for you, Rogue." The old man lit his pipe. "You are to practice this too. However, you are not to do it while you are touching anyone. Understood?"

"Why not?" she responded.

"Because. If you start pulling in ambient ki around you, you'll drain all ki around you as fast as your body can absorb it. If you're touching someone, it will probably kill them instantaneously."

Rogue blanched. "Then why do you want me to practice it, then?"

"Because," Happosai replied, "You'll eventually need every bit of ki you can get access to in order to understand how to control your condition. Part of that will be having access to a ready supply of ki." He pointed at Ranma and then himself. "We can be training dummies for you to practice on. But if you want to ever be able to touch anyone else, you'll need to figure out what happens to the ki you absorb, and then you'll have to learn to control that ability."

Rogue felt like the next couple of months were going to be hell.

(Scene break, just in case)

* * *

Like Vedder says, I'm still alive. Questions, comments, reviews welcomed. See my other stuff, too!


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